So you see my dear fellow, when a manufacturer recommends that you do something to comply with the law, if one fails to follow their expert advice in favour of one's inferior knowledge then one is rather leaving oneself open to prosecution by the relevant authorities.
Just to pluck something out of this morass (and because I can't resist stirring the dead topic pot) - is it generally agreed that the manufacturer of something is inherently an expert on all laws?
There is nothing stopping me setting up a small bike business welding frames which are very similar to (but not, obviously, direct copies of) the Mundo. By simple virtue of having produced said bike, I can now give an expert and conflicting child-carrying recommendation, right?
So depending on whether they bought a Mundo or a EdinburghFixed "Odnum", cyclists would either be obeying the manufacturer's expert opinion or defying it, (leaving only the Mundo owners to be prosecuted).
Is this the jist of the argument?
I would have thought a court would have to bin the manufacturer's recommendations and judge what was reasonable themselves, for precisely this reason.
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