Marietta Injury Lawyer Blog

When it comes to vehicles, there are some dangerous and defective products on the market right now. A good source of vehicle safety and recall information is the Consumer Reports car blog. Today Consumer Reports posted an informative piece on the latest recalls concerning the following vehicle: Acura, Chrysler, Dodge, Honda, Saab, and Toyota. If have one of these vehicles, or are considering buying a new or used car, it is worth a read.

Last week tragedy struck south Georgia when five people were killed and one person seriously injured when a 2002 Toyota collided head-on with a van near Rochelle, Georgia. The Georgia State Patrol is still investigating what caused this crash that took the life of a mother and her three children, ages, 4, 7, and 9, as well as the life of the 68-year-old passenger of the van. The Red Cross is notifying the childrens' father currently serving overseas with the U.S. Navy. The driver of the van was seriously injured and taken to Macon hospital.

There have been no reports as to the cause of the collision at this time. However, Georgia product liability lawyers and other consumer advocates will be watching closely to see if the investigation reveals whether there were any defects with the Toyota that caused this tragic collision. At least 34 deaths have been linked to Toyota unintended acceleration problems. With more information becoming available about Toyota defects every day, more law enforcement and family investigations are looking to the vehicles for answers in these unusual tragic collisions.

Product Liability Lawyers, research groups, and the federal government have been closely following consumer complaints, injuries, and deaths resulting from Toyota unintended acceleration problems. Toyota claims the multiple recalls for floor mats and gas pedals will fix the problem. However, there is compelling data linking these acceleration incidents to the electronic throttle control systems. I anticipate there are more Toyota vehicle recalls in our future.

The family of a 34 year old, Trina Renee Harris, filed a wrongful death suit against Toyota this week. Mrs. Harris died when her Toyota sped through a stop sign and crashed into a cement wall. The Harris case is believed to be the third acceleration related wrongful death lawsuit filed against Toyota. Toyota is also being sued for unexpected acceleration related deaths in California and Michigan. Toyota has refused to comment on the pending litigation. However, Toyota recently announced a fix to the defective gas pedal problem.

Of interest to Georgia Product Liability Lawyers, this week Toyota announced it has created a fix for defective gas pedals in millions of recalled vehicles. The replacement parts are being shipped and dealers will be extending hours to accommodate all the expected repairs.

Georgia Product Liability Update; Honda recently recalled 646,000 2008 and 2009 Fit Models (also known as City and Jazz internationally) due to a fire hazard in the window switch. The Honda recall affects 114,000 vehicles in the United States.

As part of our continued Georgia dangerous and defective products update, Chrysler Group has announced it is recalling thousands of Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep vehicles to fix a defective part linked to sudden brake failure.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and other organizations have been compiling Toyota unintended acceleration data for years. The following is the most up to date data I could find of reported Toyota incidents from 1999 to present:

Total Incidents - 2262
Crashes - 815
Injuries - 341
Deaths - 19

As a Georgia Product Liability Lawyer, I've been extremely interested in the massive Toyota recalls due to runaway vehicles. As the owner of a Toyota and a father of two, I've been more concerned with what I should do if I experience unintended acceleration. Consumer Reports Magazine and Toyota have recommended the following strategy if your vehicle experiences sudden acceleration:

1) Push the brakes hard and hold
2) Do not pump brakes
3) After hitting the brakes, shift the vehicle in neutral
4) If you can't get the vehicle in neutral, turn the vehicle off
5) If you turn the vehicle off, leave the key in the ignition
6) Pull safely off the road
7) Turn off the car and park.

ABC news reports that Toyota has just announced a recall of an additional 2.3 million vehicles to correct sticking acceleration pedals. This announcement follows the already massive recall launched this past fall involving 4.2 million cars. Numerous deaths and injuries have been reported as a result of Toyota vehicles unexpectedly accelerating. Initially, Toyota claimed the acceleration problem was the result of defective floor mats. Toyota is now acknowledging the problem is not limited to floor mats. The newest Toyota recall is confined to the following vehicles:

• 2009-2010 RAV4,
• 2009-2010 Corolla,
• 2009-2010 Matrix,
• 2005-2010 Avalon,
• 2007-2010 Camry,
• 2010 Highlander,
• 2007-2010 Tundra,
• 2008-2010 Sequoia

Following the first recall, many drivers insisted floor mats were not the cause of their acceleration issues. For the longest time it appeared Toyota did not want to acknowledge the acceleration problem could be bigger than floor mats. Even with this new recall, many are skeptical fixing acceleration pedals will solve the problem. As a Georgia Product Liability lawyer I've reviewed some of the first hand accounts of runaway Toyota vehicles and many are certain the gas pedal was never stuck during their incident. Hopefully, with all the evidence piling up at their feet, Toyota will take the necessary steps to fix this deadly problem.

As much time as we spend in our cars in cities like Atlanta, Georgia, auto accidents are going to continue to be an unfortunate fact of life. It comes as no suprise that in every leading consumer survey safety is always among the top concerns with American consumers. As a Georgia Personal Injury and Product Liability Lawyer, I'm always interested in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's annual report.

Now available are the Institute's Top Safety Picks for 2010. The institute's findings rate vehicles good, acceptable, marginal, and poor based on performance in high-speed front and side crash tests, a rollover test, plus evaluations of seat/head restraints for protection against neck injuries in rear impacts to determine the vehicles overall crashworthiness. Compared to prior years, far fewer vehicles received safety awards this year. Several manufacturers had cars fail the overall crash test in this year's review. Of particular concern, many of the vehicles tested rated poor in the roof strength rating.

The roof strength test is a new criteria IIHS is using for 2010. When vehicles built with weak roofs roll over, death and paralyzation are common occurances. Product liability litigation has brought to light the catastrophic injuries and deaths caused by defectively weak roof designs. With experts estimating costs as low as $50-$150 per vehicle to build significantly safer roofs, it is encouraging to see the leading safety studies including roof strength tests in their overall analysis.

We are constantly hearing about product recalls warning the public of products that turned out to have design flaws or unexpected problems. However, a more troubling fact is that many corporations know their products can cause serious injury or death and sell them anyway, even when there is an easy and inexpensive solution that will make the product safer.

The American Association for Justice has recently issued a report documenting true stories of corporations that knowingly sold defective products to American consumers and the devastating consequences caused by these products. Here are a few of these shocking true stories.

• A pharmaceutical company that discovers that its drug causes severe side effects in pediatric patients...and then spends hundreds of millions of dollars marketing to children.

• A company that discovers its medical device is little more than a bomb waiting to go off in people's hearts...and then decides not to tell anyone.

• A car company that discovers that if it does not spend $11 dollars per car to fix a defect, hundreds of people will be horribly burned...and decides it would be cheaper to let them burn.

• A company that discovers its bulletproof vests are defective...and then sells them anyway to be worn by law enforcement, the military, and the President of the United States.

Continue reading "Defective Products Cause Injury and Death; Many Corporations Know Their Products are Defective and Sell Them Anyway" »