Woman whose skull was cracked by whipped cream canister explosion awarded £990,000

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

A woman whose skull was cracked in a whipped cream accident similar to the one that killed a model in June has been awarded €1.1m (£994,950) by a French court.

The payout was unusually large for a non-fatal case in France, according to the victim’s lawyer, but was compensation “for a life snatched away”.

Emilie Lada, 30, had been in the kitchen making a mousse with her husband and two young children in 2013 when the whipped cream dispenser she was using exploded.

Its plastic lid tore off part of her face and left her with permanent disabilities including memory failure and loss of taste and smell.

“She is a young woman who can no longer work,” her lawyer said.

A court in the southern French town of Montauban ruled that the canister importer F2J and insurance provider AXA should pay the money out.

AXA unsuccessfully appealed against the ruling, saying that the Auchan supermarket chain where the canister had been sold was partially responsible.

The sum included €1.09m (£980,000) for Ms Lada and €10,000 each for her husband and two children, 3 and 6.

An exploding whipped cream canister made by the same manufacturer was behind the death of French Instagram star Rebecca Burger.

The fitness blogger suffered cardiac arrest after a piece of the exploding bottle flew up into her chest in June.

Her family announced her death to her 200,000 fans on Facebook and Instagram with a warning about the dispenser.

“Many tens of thousands of the defective appliance are still in circulation,” they wrote.

The French National Consumer Institute (INC) has warned that the canister, recalled in March 2013, may not be able to withstand pressure from the carbon dioxide inside.

Ms Lada’s lawyer, Emilie Petitgirard, said that there have been 60 serious incidents involving whipped cream canisters since 2013, some involving the same brand, Ard’ Time.

It is a symptom of “scandalous inefficiency” and a “totally ineffective recall campaign” that another woman could die four years later from the same product by the same brand, she said.