Samsung Recalls 1 Million+ Electric Ranges for Potential Fire Hazard
We're hearing about this one a little late, but any time a product failure could burn your house down or cause serious injuries, we think it's important to spread the word. With that in mind: On August 8, 2024, South Korean manufacturing giant Samsung kicked off a massive recall of its Slide-In Electric Range product...
How Can New Crash Tests Make Automakers Increase Backseat Safety?
Automobiles used to be literal metal death traps, so crash data scientists and automotive engineers naturally spent decades examining crash patterns and innovating safer vehicles. By necessity, auto manufacturers focused on the most deadly aspects of cars, so front seat safety was a higher priority over the relatively safer back seats. "Relatively" is the key...
How Badly Hurt Do I Have to Be to Pursue a Product Liability Claim?
People have some pretty extreme ideas and opinions about lawsuits. On one end of the spectrum, there are individuals that believe a lawsuit is a horrible, evil mechanism that allows people to unjustly cheat others out of money. These individuals tend to view lawsuits as frivolous and assume a smooth-talking lawyer could help anyone with...
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...
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...
Is My Vehicle Defective if it Doesn’t Have Crash Avoidance Technology?
In this 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 that can help drivers stay away from other vehicles...
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...
How Many Crashes Are Caused By Vehicle Defects?
According to the National Motor Vehicle Crash Causation Survey (2005-07) between 28,500 and 59,100 crashes per year in the United States are due to a vehicle component failure or degradation. Clearly, this is alarming, and I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but this estimation most likely falls short of the actual number....
Can Automakers Start Making Rollover Crashes Less Dangerous?
Rollover collisions can result in severe outcomes like traumatic brain injuries, spinal trauma, paralysis, amputations, and even death. According to national statistics from 2014 to 2018, only 2 percent of vehicles in all traffic crashes were involved in rollover crashes, but 24 percent of all fatalities resulted from rollover crashes. These statistics demonstrate that rollover...
