Los Angeles Personal Injury Attorneys

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

How Auto Defects Reduce a Vehicle’s Crashworthiness

Every car manufacturer has the responsibility to ensure that its products are capable of securing their passengers in the event of a car accident. This ability is commonly called “crashworthiness”, meaning the vehicle is “worthy” to be in a car accident. There are several ways how to determine the crashworthiness of a certain vehicle, and one of them is by identifying if it has auto defects. Some auto defects that would reduce a car’s crashworthiness include:


• Airbag malfunction – Airbags should have perfect timing. Car passengers may suffer fatal injuries even with a one-second delay in airbag deployment.

• Defective head and neck restraints – Car seats should have sturdy neck restraints to prevent serious head and neck injuries.

• Seatbelt defects – The purpose of the seatbelt is to ensure that the passengers remain seated in a vehicle collision. If the seatbelts have defects, passengers may hit the vehicle’s interior.

• Tire and wheel failure – Tires and wheels that have defects may get the car out of control, resulting to an accident.

• Fuel tank and engine defects – These defects include leaks, defective engine combustion components, and faulty wirings.

• Door latch failure – Doors should be stable enough to prevent passengers from being discharged off the vehicle.

• Roof caving – This happens when the materials used to manufacture the vehicle roof are not strong enough to prevent roof caving, especially in rollover accidents.

• Underride accidents – This type of accident happens when the rear bumper of a car causes another vehicle to go under it, trapping its occupants inside.

If your vehicle has one or more of these auto defects, and it caused you or other people property damage and personal injuries, you can sue the manufacturer for their non-crashworthy car. There are several points you have to prove before you file a crashworthiness and auto defect lawsuit.

• The vehicle has a defective component that made it dangerous.

• The defective parts of the car made the injuries of its passengers worse.

• Your car sustained the defect the moment it left the manufacturer or dealer.

Winning a crashworthiness and auto defect lawsuit would be easier if you have a product liability attorney with you. His experience will definitely help determine possible arguments and counter-defenses against the other party.

If you have a defective car, do not hesitate to file a lawsuit against its manufacturer. Vehicles are supposed to secure their passengers in a car accident, not make their injuries worse.

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1 Comments:

  • Car owners should be responsible enough to check their vehicles for defects. As stated in the article, defective components may put at risk even the safest car models. Many lives are endangered and thousands of dollars are lost when automobile owners do not examine their cars’ components. As usual, people only learn their lesson once they have experienced the consequences of their negligence.

    By Blogger Unknown, At June 12, 2010 at 4:59 AM  

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