At the end of January 2015, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced an urgent recall of 2.1 million cars and SUVs that had previously been recalled for defective airbags and that have now been discovered to have been inadequately remedied. The recalled vehicles include at least a million vehicles with airbags that can deploy accidentally and about an equal number that can rupture when deployed and project metal shrapnel into vehicle occupants. In some cases, airbags both deploy when they should not and spew dangerous shrapnel when they do.
Defective cars and other motor vehicles have great potential to cause serious injury and death. The Killino Firm’s car-accident lawyers have extensive experience with cases arising out of injuries and deaths caused by defective cars and vehicle safety equipment. If you have been injured or one of your loved ones has died due to a vehicle defect, contact The Killino Firm for more information about your legal rights and options.
Legal Liability for Injuries and Deaths Caused by Defective Motor Vehicles
Motor-vehicle manufacturers and others involved in vehicles’ production and distribution may be found strictly liable under products-liability law for injuries and deaths determined to have been caused by vehicle defects. Strict liability means that motor vehicles that are found to be unreasonably dangerous due to defects in their design, manufacture, or warnings may lead to such defendants’ liability even when none of the defendants was negligent in producing the defective vehicles or in releasing them to consumers.
Cars and other motor vehicles may contain defects that cause accidents or defects that enhance injuries sustained in accidents caused by other factors. Enhanced injuries are injuries beyond those that an accident victim would have sustained in the absence of the product defect. A car with a roof that too easily collapses in a rollover accident, for example, may cause injuries to a victim that would not have occurred if the roof had not been defective.
Defects that enhance victims’ injuries are commonly known as crashworthiness defects and include airbags that deploy when they should not as well as those that rupture when they do deploy. These types of defects are generally defects in design or manufacture and may result in the strict liability of airbag designers and manufacturers as well as the designers, manufacturers, and distributors of vehicles in which these airbags are installed for injuries determined to have been enhanced by these defects.
Obtain Legal Assistance from The Killino Firm, P.C.
The Killino Firm Miami is known across the country for its aggressive pursuit of justice on behalf of people who have been injured or killed as a result of dangerous and defective cars and other motor vehicles. If you have been injured or one of your family members has died in this manner, The Killino Firm can help you secure the compensation you deserve from the parties responsible for your injury or loved one’s death.
