Metcalf spoke anxiously to the group: “This incident is a devastating blow. Thank
goodness the guy didn’t get hurt; but now every one of our axes out there is suspect. If
we have to issue a recall on the product, that will kill our axe business. If we have to
discontinue our axe program, all the European competitors will step in and copy the
technology that we worked so long to perfect. Yet think of the liability implications of
an accident from this tool! How could this have happened? I thought this axe had the
latest and greatest technology! We’ve never had problems like this with our regular
mountaineering axes.”