The first time I became aware of the hazards at Costco outdoor food courts was in 2007. In that year, there was a tragic accident at the Costco in Burbank California which left a store customer severely injured. Since 2007, I have become aware of dozens of accidents involving Costco customers injured or killed at Costco stores. As lawyers like to say, Costco is "on notice" that vehicles are a hazard to customers generally, and that, especially at outdoor food courts and store entrances, some form of impact-tested safety barrier is called for to prevent injuries should a vehicle for any reason drive into a pedestrian-only area.
Now by chance I saw a letter today to a local newspaper on the island of Kauai in Hawaii from a Costco customer, calling out the same problem. THIRTEEN YEARS LATER, COSTCO CONTINUES TO NEGLECT BASIC CUSTOMER SAFETY AT SOME OF THEIR STORES. Please take a minute to read the letter, pasted below this photo of the outdoor food court area at the store referred to in the letter:
Now by chance I saw a letter today to a local newspaper on the island of Kauai in Hawaii from a Costco customer, calling out the same problem. THIRTEEN YEARS LATER, COSTCO CONTINUES TO NEGLECT BASIC CUSTOMER SAFETY AT SOME OF THEIR STORES. Please take a minute to read the letter, pasted below this photo of the outdoor food court area at the store referred to in the letter:
Costco food court is accident waiting to happen
I would like to address a pedestrian-safety issue that endangers hundreds of people each day. Right here, on our beautiful island, there lurks a catastrophic accident waiting to happen. Each of us has probably stood in this line or sat at the provided picnic tables. The site of this potential tragedy that I am referring to is at our local Costco. The outdoor food court is the specific area of my concern.
I have personally visited this super store on other islands and the Mainland, noting that one glaring feature is missing from our Lihue store: there is nothing stopping a vehicle from driving into the seated and standing patrons at the food court. At other similar store locations, the use of bollards is applied. A bollard is a vertical pipe or pillar planted a few feet deep into the ground, showing about four feet above ground level.
Strategic placement of the bollard prevents the intrusion of an errant driver or malfunctioning vehicle from crushing unsuspecting patrons. Why do other store locations have bollards and not ours? I asked the local store managers and got the answer that “the bollards are not required by code.” So whose fault will it be when something does unfortunately happen at this location?
Do we need to have our Kaua‘i building code amended to require stores like this to install bollards for their customers’ protection? Please, let’s not wait for that to happen. It is my intention to expose this deficiency and for the store to rectify the problem. The protection of my and your ‘ohana is all I seek.
Roger W., Lawai
https://www.thegardenisland.com/2020/02/14/opinion/letters-for-friday-february-14-2020/
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