Car Defects

Four people escaped without serious injuries after a runaway utility trailer smashed into the SUV in which they were traveling. According to a CBS 47 News report, the collision occurred the afternoon of May 14, 2013 on Highway 41, just south of Avenue 12 in Madera County.

California Highway Patrol officials say safety chains on a PG&E utility trailer sparked a grass fire on the side of the road. The trailer then broke away from the truck that was towing it and went hurtling down Highway 41 into oncoming traffic. The runaway trailer eventually struck an SUV, which overturned.

Passersby helped rescue the SUV’s occupants, including an infant and a toddler. Both children were secured in car seats properly, which, no doubt, saved their lives.

PG&E officials are in the process of examining their trailer to determine what went wrong. CHP officials also said that the occupants of the vehicle are lucky to be alive and fortunate that the injuries are not serious. Read the rest »

Each year, millions of recalled vehicles are sold to unsuspecting buyers without the much-needed repairs. According to a recent Carfax study, in 2012, just over 2 million unrepaired vehicles, which were recalled for a multitude of safety defects, were offered for sale online.

That doesn’t even give us the full picture because it just accounts for what is online and only the sites that Carfax looked at for its study. Carfax especially singled out states such as Iowa, Kansas, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan because the number of recalled vehicles for sale in those states, just in the last one year, has gone up by about 25 percent.

The way Carfax determined that vehicles had been recalled, but not repaired, was through the vehicle VIN numbers. Federal officials issue recall notices by makes and models. Manufacturers and dealers track the VIN (vehicle identification number) of the individual vehicles brought in for needed repairs. In such cases, it is the consumer who gets severely shortchanged. This is because when the federal government recalls a vehicle, there is apparently a safety issue with that particular make and model. Read the rest »

BMW is recalling about 500,000 vehicles in the United States including recent model year 3 Series sedans, the 1 Series coupe and the Z4 sports car because a battery cable can fail causing the cars to stall unexpectedly.

According to a news report in the Los Angeles Times, the recall includes 3 series sedans, wagons, convertibles and coupes from the 2007 through 2011 model years, 1 Series coupes and convertibles from 2008 through 2012 model years and the Z4 from 2009 to 2011. So far, the German automaker has documented one crash in Canada caused by this problem, but has no record of incidents in the United States.

Read the rest »

Subaru of America has announced that it is issuing a product defect recall for more than 633,000 vehicles due to fire risks over door lights that may short circuit. According to a report in The Detroit News, Subaru, which is a unit of Japan’s Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., is recalling all of its 2010-11 Legacy and Outback models along with some 2006-12 Tribeca and 2009-12 Forester vehicles.

The automaker posted an alert on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s website that nearly 53,000 accessory puddle lights were sold on the recalled vehicles. Each door has two lights that are fixed to the rocker panels to brighten the ground under the door. When the lights are exposed to moisture such as salt water, they could short circuit, leading to smoke or fire. Read the rest »

Toyota settles car recalls – $1billion dollars

January 1, 2013—Los Angeles, California—According to a report from CBS News, Toyota Motor Corporation has agreed to a settlement of more than $1 billion in payment of damages related to acceleration and brake problems with the Prius hybrid and other models. Toyota has recalled more than 14 million vehicles worldwide as a result of the problems with parts such as accelerators and brakes.

The settlement is the largest single settlement in U. S. history for automobile defects. Toyota initially tried to blame drivers and floor mats for the safety issues posed by the faulty parts and attempted to dodge responsibility for the accidents and injuries that have resulted from its faulty products.

The History of Toyota’s Recall Issues

There have been thousands of reports of sudden unintended acceleration since 1999 by Toyota and Lexus customers. These incidents have resulted in at least 341 injuries and 19 deaths. In 2003, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began investigating sudden unintended acceleration in Lexus and Toyota Camry, Tacoma, and Sienna models. At first, the NHTSA seemed to give Toyota an excuse for the problem by blaming floor mats for the problem. Toyota immediately took advantage of this finding to blame customers for improper installation of the mats.

However, the problems continued and the NHTSA could not find the cause of the stick accelerators. Recalls in 2005 and 2007 attempted to correct the problems, but these were on a small scale. More recently, further investigation and testing has led to larger recalls as the cause of SUA remains a mystery.

Replacing the accelerator pedals and floor mats do not seem to solve or prevent the problem. It is possible that the issue is electrical in nature or related to the computer-driven systems running the car. Toyota has steadfastly denied that it could be the electronics systems causing the problems.

The Future of Toyota Auto Recall

One of the most troubling aspects of the Toyota recall situation is that many of the accelerator issues have been tied to vehicles that have not yet been recalled. This means that there could be drivers out there who will experience accidents and injuries from SUA who have no way of knowing that they are in danger. Until the problem is identified successfully, this will remain an issue.

However, with the large amount of the present settlement, it is possible that Toyota is anticipating future payouts for these issues. It is also possible that Toyota plans to cap it liability by engaging new professionals to investigate the cause of the accelerator problems and once and for all give a definitive answer as to the cause of these issues.

Victims who have suffered injuries from a defective car or part should talk to a car recall attorney about their cases. A personal injury lawyer who handles car recall injury cases can give advice about the victim’s rights in such a situation and how much he or she can expect to recover in damages for these types of accidents.

Judy Neiman ran over her 9-year-old daughter, Sydnee, accidentally with her own SUV while backing up. To this day, the mother tortures herself with thoughts of how she could have missed seeing the girl, who survived four open heart surgeries, but did not recover from the injuries she suffered in the accident. According to an Associated Press news report, Neiman now lobbies to make it mandatory for auto manufacturers to improve the visibility behind passenger vehicles to help prevent such fatal backing crashes. Although President George W. Bush signed a measure into law five years ago requiring such standards for automakers, they have yet to be mandated because of delays by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Lives Lost in Backing Crashes

Every year, 228 people are killed in fatal backing crashes, about half of them (110) children age 10 and under. The Department of Transportation under Secretary Ray LaHood has pushed the deadline to issue the new guidelines for car manufacturers three times. Advocates and anguished parents such as Neiman are asking why it should take so long to fix an issue that was recognized as a serious problem by lawmakers and government regulators several decades ago. Safety advocates call it a “death sentence” especially for young children who are most often the victims in such fatal backing crashes.

The proposed regulations, including expanding the field of view for vehicles by including rearview cameras and video displays as standard equipment, could have saved many lives if they had been implemented. While LaHood says his agency needs more time to ensure that the research is thorough and that the final rule is appropriate, others insist that the issue is money and a reluctance to impose financial burdens on an industry that is plagued by economic problems.

Putting Consumer Safety First

It is about time that these standards become mandatory for every vehicle that is driven in the United States. According to government estimates, making rear cameras standard on every car would add $58 to $88 to the price of vehicles that are already equipped with dashboard display screens and $159 to $203 for those without them. Compare that cost to how much automakers pay lobbyists – about $2 billion a year! These lobbyists are bargaining with officials to require cameras only in vehicles with extra-large blind zones and outfitting others with curved, wide-angle exterior mirrors.

It is appalling that automakers who have this technology readily available, will not install it in their vehicles because it makes the car expensive by $200. Is saving $200 on a vehicle worth a young life? Is it worth the wasted potential, the grief caused to parents and family members? Are profits more important than people? These automakers spend $2 billion on lobbyists to make sure that their bottom line is protected. Of course, they put profits before people. As auto products liability attorneys who have represented injured victims of defective autos and their families, we have seen them do it time and again. We can only hope that the government puts these regulations in place before more innocent lives are lost.