SEVERAL factors combine to make product safety a difficult problem for both economic and legal analysis. The probability of a product-related accident, to begin with, depends typically on actions taken not only by the producer but also by the consumer. An accident might have occurred anyway; the action in question might not have made the accident a certainty. Information about these actions may be imperfect or nonexistent and may be obtainable only after an accident occurs. Accidents frequently entail losses such as death or disability for which there are no perfect market substitutes. Existing markets, moreover, may afford only limited opportunities for insuring these losses. Payments made by one party to the other in these circumstances can depend, in principle, on whether an accident occurs and on whatever information is available