Football helmet maker Riddell Sports Group is at the center of a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the father of a former football player in Ohio.
Darren Hamblin filed a lawsuit that Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease suffered by his son while playing high school football led to his death.
Hamblin’s lawyers claim the helmet maker and its products failed to protect his deceased son and didn’t provide an adequate warning message for athletes’ parents, according to WHIO.
Cody Hamblin died in 2016 at 22-years-old while he was fishing with his grandfather. Cody had a sudden seizure while on a boat, fell overboard into the water and died within a minute, according to the lawsuit filed a lawsuit in Montgomery County Common Plea court.
The suit says brain damage caused by playing youth and tackle football led to Cody’s death and that he developed brain and neurological damage while using those companies’ helmets. Cody began playing football when he was 8-years-old.
“Upon information and belief, there are no specific safety standards for youth sports,” the suit alleges. “In other words, (the companies’) ‘safety standards’ utilized in the design and manufacture of their tackle football helmets fail to differentiate between adult tackle football participants and children tackle football participants, despite the drastic and varying differences between the two.”
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The suit names helmet maker Riddell Sports and its parent company of Schutt Sports as defendants. The plaintiffs allege negligence, product liability, negligent misrepresentation, fraud and wrongful death.
The lawsuit also claims children are more vulnerable to head, neck and brain injuries than adults and should have more protections in place.
CTE, which can only be diagnosed in an autopsy, has been found in the brains of more than 100 former football players, according to multiple reports and academic studies.
The helmet maker company has yet to file an answer in court, according to 10TV.com.
