Shopping Aisle Danger

Nobody considers shopping to be dangerous. But it can be.

Each year, thousands of shoppers are hurt or even killed by falling merchandise.

What's coming down?

Everything from toys to TVs to timber. On The Early Show, consumer correspondent Susan Koeppen shared the story of a Los Angeles woman whose elderly mother was crushed and killed when some merchandise fell on her at a Home Depot.

It was supposed to be a day of fun.

Rebecca Hamilton was out shopping with her 79-year-old mother, Mary. Their last stop? A Home Depot in Santa Monica, Calif.

"You don't expect when you're going shopping that you're going to lose your life," Rebecca Hamilton says.

Hamilton and her mother were walking down an aisle when a pallet of merchandise suddenly fell off a forklift. Mary didn't have time to get out of the way.

"I don't think I even had time to scream," Hamilton says. "I knew it was coming down; I knew it was coming down in her direction; and when I looked back, she was totally covered under a pallet, and she was crushed."

Mary died hours later at the hospital.

Hamilton's attorney, Steve Rasak says, "These people, these patrons of these stores are going shopping. They don't consider this to be a hazardous activity, but it truly is because of the environment that these stores have created."

Safety experts say thousands of people are injured or killed every year by falling merchandise: victims of improperly stored items that come tumbling down.

Terry Grisim, a top safety engineer in the retail industry, tells Koeppen he doesn't think the average consumer going down an aisle looks up and sees what is going on.

Using a hidden camera, Koeppen asked him to show viewers of The Early Show possible safety hazards in several retail stores in New Jersey, where merchandise is stacked high above the aisles.

At a warehouse store, Grisim points out a large box balancing on a much smaller box and a couch stored on its side, two dangerous mistakes, he says, when stacking merchandise.

"If it fell," Grisim points out, "that would be catastrophic, if anyone was underneath it."

Standing by as employees move merchandise from a high shelf, it is easy to see the box teetering. It looks like it's going to fall. Anyone standing underneath could be injured or even killed. And yet, The Early Show photographer and producer were allowed to stand just feet away. Grisim says they should have blocked off the area.

The whole procedure was just "wrong; it's improper," says Grisim -- even scary.

In a toy store, he spotted another danger: boxes piled so high, one was in the path of a ceiling fan.

"I thought that was one of the worst things I've ever seen, because if that fan switch got turned on, that box would go flying without any warning," Grisim says.

Believe it or not, there are no federal regulations mandating that stores secure merchandise so it doesn't fall on shoppers.

After her mother's death, Rebecca Hamilton pushed for change in California and got it. It's now the only state in the nation that requires stores to block off aisles when moving merchandise and to use safety barriers on shelves.

Hamilton wants the law enacted nationwide so what happened to her mother doesn't happen to anyone else.

With difficulty, Hamilton says, "To see a loved one crushed...it was so unnecessary, so unnecessary."

Hamilton and her family sued Home Depot and settled with the company for $900,000.

In a statement, Home Depot says it has an extensive safety program and it's firmly committed to providing its customers with the safest shopping environment possible. No accident, they affirm, is acceptable to the company.

How can shoppers protect themselves?

• Before you walk down an aisle, look up. If you see something that doesn't look right, don't go down the aisle and report it to the manager.
• Never reach up and try to grab something that's on a high shelf. You can knock boxes over.
• If you see someone working a forklift or if they are on a ladder trying to get something from a high shelf, stay away. Avoid the area until the item is safely on the ground.