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Was your car defective? How to tell. |
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Has your car been recalled? Links to sites that will tell you. |
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Top sites about automobile defect issues. |
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How to Tell Whether Your Car Was Defective |
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©2006, Lee Tarte Wallace
Was the product that injured me defective? How to tell.
When someone is seriously injured in a car wreck, people often wonder whether the injuries were a natural result of the wreck, or whether they were caused by a defect in the car. If you are wondering whether a car was defective, you can look for these telltale signs. These features are just indicators – certainly not every car with one of these problems is defective, and of course a car can be defective in a way that is not listed here.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR
Seat Belts
Airbags
How the Car Held Up
Fire
Seats
Roof
Whole car crushed
Someone thrown out of car
Conversion van
Tires
Rollover
WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR
WHAT TO DO
WHAT TO LOOK FOR
A. Seat Belts
(1) A person was injured because his seat belt came unlatched during the wreck.
(2) A person was injured even though she was wearing a belt, because the belt did not hold her in place in her seat.
The belt should hold the passenger in place; sometimes the belt “spools out” instead, and the person hits the interior parts of the car.
(3) Someone was injured where the seat belt ran across her neck or upper chest. Some seat belts are hung too high, so that they cut across the necks of women, children or smaller men.
(4) In a car with an automatic shoulder belt and a manual lap belt, someone was wearing only the automatic belt and suffered injuries to the body parts nearest the belt (usually the chest or neck).
Studies have shown that when an automatic belt slides across a person’s chest, often the person assumes he is “belted.” Unfortunately, the automatic belt works as just one part of a restraint system, and the system is not effective unless the person also fastens the lap belt. These cases generally are characterized by severe neck injuries, including decapitation.
B. Airbags
(1) In a frontal collision at more than a few miles per hour, the airbags did not deploy. Airbags are not designed to deploy in every possible situation, but they should deploy in most frontal crashes. New cars also may be equipped with air bags designed to deploy in side impacts.
(2) An airbag deployed for no reason and caused the client to wreck. Several vehicles have been recalled in the last few years because their airbags deploy for no reason. When an airbag suddenly deploys into a driver’s face, the driver no longer can see oncoming traffic and a wreck is likely.
(3) An airbag deployed during a wreck or for no reason, and the airbag itself severely injured the client.
Some airbags deploy incorrectly or at the wrong time, so that they become missiles aimed at the chest, head and face of the person they are supposed to protect. In those cases, the airbag itself can cause an injury that the wreck did not.
C. How the Vehicle Held Up
(1) A fire occurred, whether in the engine or around the gas tank. Fires generally warrant investigation, even more particularly in a low speed collision or in the absence of a collision.
(2) After the wreck, the seats were out of their normal positions. In a wreck, a weak seat may collapse or recline backward into the back seat area. Usually these types of defects result in head or spinal injuries.
(3) During a rollover, the roof crushed downward toward the heads of the passengers in the vehicle. Roofs are (or should be) designed to stand up in a rollover. Sometimes the roof collapses on top of the passengers, usually causing spinal or head injuries.
(4) The “occupant space,” or the area in which the people in the vehicle sit, was severely compromised, especially in a situation where damage that extensive was unexpected. One measuring stick for determining whether the vehicle suffered excessive crush is to look at the “striking vehicle” -- the vehicle that collided with your vehicle. Taking into account the difference in size between the two vehicles, did your vehicle incur a lot more damage?
(5) The client (or decedent) was ejected from the vehicle. Sometimes witnesses will note that after the accident a door or hatchback was standing open or a window or windshield had come out of the vehicle.
(6) The client was in a conversion van that failed to hold up in the collision. Some conversion vans alter the original design of the vehicle in a way that makes the vehicle particularly susceptible in a crash.
D. How the Vehicle Handled in the Wreck
(1) The vehicle rolled over, particularly while it was on the road. Because of their design, some vehicles are more likely to roll over than others.
(2) A tire caused or contributed to the wreck, because it blew out or for some other reason. Tires that fail while a car is proceeding down the road can cause the driver to lose control of the car.
WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR
Certain factors, while they won’t necessarily kill the case, can make it difficult for you to successfully bring a product liability suit.
(1) Drinking/drug use.
(2) Extremely high speeds.
(3) Your vehicle is more than a few years old.
Many states have statutes of repose, which are akin to statutes of limitations. Statutes of repose provide that a person cannot sue a manufacturer for a defective product that is more than a certain number of years old, or that was “first sold” more than a certain number of years ago. For example, Georgia has a 10-year statute of repose, found at O.C.G.A. § 51-1-11(c). That statute has several exceptions, however, which conceivably may make a case viable even when it involves a vehicle more than 10 years old.
(4) Damages too low to justify case expense outlay. For a variety of reasons, product liability cases are enormously expensive to bring. Unfair though it may be, unless someone was killed or suffered catastrophic injury, the case expenses may be so high that the case will not be economically viable.
WHAT TO DO IF YOU THINK YOU MAY HAVE A PRODUCT LIABILITY CASE
Here are some of the steps you will need to take:
(1) Preserve the vehicle intact.
(2) Do not settle the insurance part of the case yet. You need to examine all of the facts before you settle out some defendants;
(3) Contact a reputable lawyer with experience in this area immediately.
Has your car been recalled?
Links to sites that will tell you.
NHTSA
Cars.com’s link to NHTSA
Top sites about automobile defect issues.
NHTSA
FARS (Fatality Analysis Reporting System)
Center for Auto Safety
Insurance Institute for Highway Safety
Crash tests (from around the world)
© 2007, Lee Tarte Wallace
The contents of this page: (a) should not be considered or relied upon as legal, financial or other professional advice in any manner whatsoever, and (b) may be considered advertising under some state’s Bar Rules. Unless otherwise stated, no article or text at this Internet site is, has been, or will be updated or revised for accuracy as statutory or case law changes following the date of first publication. Always consult with your lawyer and/or your other professional advisors before acting.
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