Hurt by a shopping cart at a grocery store in California: who may be responsible
Shopping carts seem harmless, but they cause many injuries: wheels that jam and throw a shopper off balance, children falling from cart seats or carts tipping over, runaway carts rolling across sloped parking lots, and employees pushing long trains of carts into customers.
Common shopping cart injuries
- Broken or wobbly wheels, bent frames, and broken child seats or seat belts
- Children falling from the seat or basket, or carts tipping when a child climbs on the side
- Runaway carts in sloped parking lots or loose carts left near parked cars
- Employees pushing long lines of carts, or motorized cart pushers, into shoppers
- Fingers and hands pinched in folding seats or cart corrals
- Store-provided motorized shopping carts that malfunction
Who may be responsible
A store generally must use reasonable care to keep its carts in safe condition and to take damaged carts out of use. It may also be responsible for how employees handle carts and for keeping its parking lot reasonably safe. Depending on the facts, others may share responsibility, such as another shopper who carelessly let a cart go, the property owner or a contractor responsible for the parking lot or cart retrieval, or the cart manufacturer if a defect, like a failed child seat restraint, caused the injury.
California’s comparative fault rule means that if you were partly at fault, your recovery may be reduced but is not necessarily barred.
The cart itself is key evidence
Stores may put a damaged cart back into service or throw it away. If you can, photograph it from every side, including the wheels, the child seat and belt, and any cart number or store markings. Ask the manager, in writing if possible, to set the cart aside and preserve it, along with surveillance video and any cart inspection or repair records.
Steps to take
- Get medical care. If a child fell from a cart, watch closely for signs of a head injury and see a doctor.
- Report the incident to a manager and write down their name and the incident report number.
- Photograph the scene: the cart, the aisle, entrance, or parking space, any slope or surface problem, and your injuries.
- Get witness names and phone numbers.
- Keep your receipt or loyalty-card record showing you were there.
- Be cautious about giving a recorded statement to the store’s insurer before getting advice.
For a full checklist, see what to do after you get hurt in a store. Deadlines apply; see our California statute of limitations guide.
Have questions about your situation? An attorney can review the facts with you for free and with no obligation.
General information only, not legal advice. Every situation is different, and no particular outcome is guaranteed.
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- California statute of limitations for personal injury