Sarah Katz, 21, had a heart condition and was not aware of the drink’s caffeine content, which exceeded that of cans of Red Bull and Monster energy drinks combined, according to a legal filing
Sarah Katz, 21, had a heart condition and was not aware of the drink’s caffeine content, which exceeded that of cans of Red Bull and Monster energy drinks combined, according to a legal filing
Agreed. Even if it were a simple mistake, somebody died and that fact should be taken seriously. Never blame the dead person. The question, then, is whether to blame anyone at all.
That said, the article is not very convincing to me that Panera did anything wrong. It could be because the argument is truncated, but some of the quotes in the article are dead guilty of giving a fairly one-sided view of the reality.
What I see as a failure would have been missing or hidden signage, as some Panera locations keep that drink behind the counter. The quote directly states that’s not the case here. And in the same move, pointing out it was near “less caffeinated” drinks, it’s obvious that dispenser was near at least the iced tea and sodas. IF it was sitting next to iced tea and had the standard signage (posted by others here), I don’t see Panera having done anything wrong. But we don’t know if those statements are all true, that’s just what I extrapolate from quotes and explanations about the complaint.
“Gone wrong” can still be a tragic mistake. As a lot of people said “I don’t read signs if I’m in a hurry”. I’ve ordered food items before that the menu clearly said had ingredients I was dangerously allergic to and I missed it until I received the food item. Short of verbally asking “are you able to consume 200mg sugar? Are you able to consume 360mg caffeine?” of every ingredient of every food product in every restaurant, tragic things will still occasionally happen. And if we did THAT, someone might well say “yeah yeah whatever”. And if THAT did happen and someone died, it’s still not appropriate to bring up personal responsibility.