RECENT SUCCESS STORY: $4,000,000 SEMI-TRUCK ACCIDENT SETTLEMENT
Did a Car Seat Defect Cause My Child’s Injuries?
Every parent wants the best for their child, and that includes car seats. While many parents spend hours researching the safest car seats for their little ones, I think many wouldn't even consider that the highly-rated car seat they purchased at the end of that search still might fail when it's needed most. To make...
Waiving Hours of Service Rules for Hurricane Ian Relief Doesn’t Mean Those Rules Shouldn’t Exist
During the initial phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) relaxed hours of service rules to ensure an uninterrupted supply of goods during the crisis. This led some in the trucking industry to suggest that the waiver meant that rules weren't necessary in the first place. Their thinking went, "If...
3 Types of Rollover Crashes and Why They Matter to Victims
Rollover crashes are frightening and often fatal. Most people know a rollover accident when they see one, but part of our government's work to prevent these crashes involves defining and classifying what a rollover is. The National Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA), defines a rollover as any crash where a vehicle impacts the ground on its...
How 5 Cases (Mostly) Made Product Liability Law in the United States
That you can hold a manufacturer accountable for a defective product is as obvious to anyone alive today as the fact that Americans elect their leaders. Modern product liability law is so ubiquitous that it's easy to forget just how new it is. Less than 200 years ago, caveat emptor (buyer beware) was the prevailing...
Are Automakers Liable if a Roof Collapses in a Rollover Crash?
Rollover crashes account for less than 3% of all passenger vehicle accidents, but are responsible for almost 35% of all highway fatalities, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). Of course, automakers cannot create vehicles that will never be in a rollover crash; however, most people assume that rollover crashes will be deadly...
Are Vehicle Fires Always Product Liability Cases?
In July 2018, the United States Fire Administration (USFA) published a Fire Report Series that found that the US averages 345 deaths and 1,300 injuries due to vehicle fires every year. Additionally, the report found that 80 percent of these fires occur in our everyday passenger vehicles. What is most startling though, is that "unintentional actions...
What Do I Do If My Seatback Failed and Injured Me?
I previously wrote about the dangers of seatback failure and how safety experts believe the current design standards are too lax and severely outdated. Now the pressing question for some people is, "What are my options if I was seriously injured or lost a loved one due to seatback failure?" Manufacturers Have a Duty to...
Is My Vehicle Defective if it Doesn’t Have Crash Avoidance Technology?
Technology can save lives, especially in the auto industry. In today's day and age, many in the vehicle safety community believe there’s really no excuse for vehicles not to include Crash Avoidance Technology (CAT) as a standard feature. According to these experts, it is irresponsible and harmful for automakers to exclude the software and hardware...
What Is the Government Doing to Prevent Vehicle Seatback Failures? Not Much.
For years automakers and vehicle safety organizations have gone back and forth about vehicle seat design and seatback failure. Automakers maintain that “yielding seats” limit injuries in low-speed rear impacts, and that if vehicle seats were stiffer, those low-speed rear accidents would result in more severe injuries. The problem is, that this argument originated in...
Would Autonomous Vehicles Eliminate 94% of All Crashes?
A national study on the causes of crashes found that 94% of all crashes have a critical error assigned to the driver of the vehicle. Various organizations and players in the automotive industry have spread this statistic far and wide through advertisements, social media campaigns, blog posts, new outlets, and government websites. If this statistic...
