Five Potential Grounds for Filing Vehicle Product Liability Cases
Lawyers with our Virginia Beach, Virginia (VA)-based personal injury law firm handle product liability cases. A product liability claim is on that focuses on a products defects. Our law firm wants to make sure consumers in our neioghboring cities of Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Newport News and Hampton, and everyone across Virginia, are aware of the following five possible grounds for automotive product liability cases: tire blowouts, seat belt malfunctions, rollover and stability issues, fuel-fed fires and airbags.
Tire blowouts and failures are a common product liability claim. Manufactures know that without proper service or replacement the wear and tear of a tire is likely to cause disaster in the future. Problems that occur with tires can be a manufacturing process problem, under-vulcanization, old ingredients, improper sized components, and trapped air between the layers of tire during manufacturing. A tire blowout can result in single or multi-vehicle accidents, which may result in injury or even death.
Another product liability situation on the road is seat belt malfunctions, when a seat belt fails to protect the passenger when an accident occurs. When the vehicle receives such great impact that it causes ejection, a seat belt’s purpose is to securely hold the passenger or driver in place. When a seatbelt malfunctions, it fails to do the job of protecting car occupants from massive injury or ejection. Seat belt injuries mostly occur when there is a production or installation defect. Spinal cord injuries, amputations, broken bones, concussions, and fatalities are some of the results of seat belt malfunctions.
Rollover and stability issues are product liability cases often seen by our law firm as well. Sport utility vehicles and big vans or busses may be prone to rollover. When drivers of these vehicles try to make an avoidance or correction maneuver, the risk exists that the car’s lack of stability might result in a rollover. Due to friction forces alone a vehicle of any size should not rollover or lose stability. When vehicles rollover on flat pavement the reason is most likely due to a defect in the design of the vehicle.
Fuel-fed fires most likely occur when a fuel tank is mounted behind the rear axel. The position of this type of fuel tank is exceptionally dangerous due to the fact that explosions may happen in rear impact accidents. Although the safest positioning for a fuel tank is between the front and rear axel, many manufacturers did not follow this safety practice.
Last but not least, airbags are another potential source of product liability claims. Airbags failing to deploy in an accident is only one of many airbag defects. Another airbag defect can be aggressive airbags, which deploy at excessive speeds which may cause head or neck injuries including facial scars.
If you were severely injured or harmed by any of these automobile product defects, please contact our Virginia injury law firm and we may be able to help.
MC
About the Editors: Shapiro, Lewis & Appleton is a Virginia (VA) injury law firm whose attorneys focus exclusively on personal injury and accident law. We have a proven track record in the court room, and you can review our case results to see for yourself. We have offices in Virginia Beach and Hampton, but we're ready to come to you anywhere in VA if you've been seriously hurt by the carelessness of another person or company. Virginia injury lawyers Rick Shapiro and James Lewis have been recognized as among the Best Lawyers in America since 2008. Shapiro and Lewis have also been selected by the National Million Dollar Advocates Forum since 2009. Rick, Jim and Randy have been named Virginia Super Lawyers for Personal Injury Law (Jim since '06, Rick since '10, and Randy since '12). This is a prestigious recognition that only 5 percent of lawyers receive.
Our attorneys have deep roots in Virginia and handle cases throughout the commonwealth including Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, Newport News, Hampton and Suffolk, VA.
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