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› $150,000,000 verdict in personal injury case
A study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found the annual cost of medical care and productivity losses associated with motor vehicle crash injuries exceeds $99 billion per year in the United States, with direct medical care accounting for $17 billion. Despite great improvements in traffic safety in recent years, the costs related to traffic accidents amount to about $500 per licensed driver in the U.S.
A Texas jury awarded the family of a 19-year-old woman $1.8 million after finding a defective seat design contributed to her death in a July 2007 traffic accident.
At a time when the news is full of reports of cars accelerating out of control and crashing, drivers texting behind the wheel and car roofs crushed in deadly rollovers, here’s some welcome news: the number of people killed in U.S. traffic accidents is the lowest since 1954.
The words “fuel economy” pack more appeal for American car buyers than any other time in automotive history. Motivated by financial strains to cut costs and inspired by the Green Revolution to reduce fuel consumption, millions of Americans are turning to smaller and smaller car models. But are mini and micro size cars, which are so common on European streets, safe for people to use on American roads and interstates?
An investigative report by CBS reveals the lengths some big corporations will go to conceal evidence that casts the company and its products in a dubious light. The report features Dimitrios Biller, a former attorney for Toyota, who accuses the car manufacturer of withholding and destroying evidence in more than 300 rollover and roof crush lawsuits. Biller alleges Toyota took measures to hide evidence “of its vehicles’ structural shortcomings,” an effort which he claims amounted to a “ruthless conspiracy.”
Beasley Allen has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Ford Motor Company in U.S. District Court, Southern District of Mississippi, Hattiesburg, on behalf of a Mississippi family whose 2002 Ford Explorer XLS rolled over after being struck by another vehicle.
The Riley family, represented by Beasley Allen attorney J.P. Sawyer, alleges that the vehicle’s restraint system and door latch were defective and failed to protect them in the rollover. In result, Matthew and Carmen Riley and one of their daughters received severe injuries. Another daughter, Alyssa Riley, was killed in the rollover.
MONTGOMERY, ALA. – Beasley Allen attorney J. Cole Portis has filed a lawsuit for an Alabama woman whose husband was killed in a vehicular rollover accident while driving his 1993 Geo Tracker. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama Northern Division, and names as Defendants Suzuki Motor Corporation; American Suzuki Motor Corporation; General Motors; General Motors of Canada, Ltd.; Cami Automotive Inc.; Takata Inc.; Takata-Fischer Corporation; Takata Fabrication Corporation; and Key Safety Restraint Sysytems, Inc. Beasley Allen filed the complaint jointly with Robert Riley, Jr. of the Birmingham, Ala. Firm Riley & Jackson.
Passenger seat belts will soon be a requirement on commercial buses – a measure that the National Transportation Safety Board has long advocated but didn’t have the authority to enforce. Yesterday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which has the legal authority to establish transportation safety standards, told Congress that it will require commercial motor coaches to have safety belts for their passengers.
After being bogged down by bureaucracy and industry concerns for years, federal automobile roof crush standards finally became tougher. U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced the new roof strength standards last week. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that the new standards, which are double the current standards for vehicles weighing up to 6,000 pounds, “will significantly strengthen vehicle roof standards and improve rollover crash protection.”
The Ford Pinto is a car that became notoriously associated with fuel-fed crash fires in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when the compact vehicle showed a propensity for catching fire when involved in even low-speed crashes. In 1977, a Ford Memo revealed that the company was aware of design problems with the Pinto that made it more susceptible to crash-related fires, but that it had deemed the overall benefits of redesigning the automobile – which included preventing an average of 180 deaths each year – to be not worth the cost – an estimated $11 per automobile.
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