Articles Posted in Defective Auto Products

Ford Motor Co. is recalling 527,000 Ford Escape crossovers from the 2001-04 model years because the antilock brake system in the small truck can catch on fire, according to a news report posted on consumer watchdog Web site, Consumeraffairs.com.

According to a statement issued by Ford, missing or incorrectly installed seals on the wiring harness could lead to corrosion when water or road salt gets into an electrical connector. The corrosion could cause the ABS warning light to come on and lead to melting or burning of the electrical ABS connector. The recall does not include the hybrid version of the Escape.

The article states that the Ford Escape fires have prompted several reports to ConsumerAffairs.Com. Ford has not reported any accidents or injuries as a result of the Escape fire, but according to the article, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has received complaints of at least 50 engine fires connected to the problems. The federal agency is also reportedly actively investigating the Ford Escape.

The article also talks about a Ford Escape owner in Jacksonville, Fla., whose 2001 Escape burned last month. This is what the woman had to say to consumeraffairs.com:

“I saw smoke rolling out of the engine compartment. The car had not moved in two days and my brother came to the truck with me. We popped the hood and smoke was everywhere, but primarily coming from underneath the brake reservoir.”

She said she could tell by the smell that it was an electrical issue as the wires were melting and burning. She got through to Ford after repeated efforts to contact a company spokesperson, who only told her that they had never heard about the problem before but that several factors could have caused the fire.
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Is this another death attributable to the weak roofs of Ford pickup trucks? The roofs of Ford pickup trucks and sports utility vehicles are negliently weak. They do not hold up in rolloveer accidents as they should, or as the roofs on some of the other Ford products do.

Although the following news report does not state the deceased driver died from the roof of her truck crushing in on her when it rolled over, I’d bet on it based upon the numerous similiar cases we have been involved with. Rollover accidents account for about a third of the auto accident fatalities in our country. Shouldn’t Ford Motor Co. being making their vehicles in such a way that occupants will survive the rollover?

According to a story in the Billings Gazette, a 52-year-old Laurel woman died the morning of April 6th in a one-vehicle rollover accident on Interstate 90 near Columbus. The woman was driving a 2002 Ford pickup westbound when her truck apparently hit ice on a bridge deck near mile marker 400. The truck went across the median, rolled and came to rest on its top in the eastbound lane. Their report was based upon information from the Montana Highway Patrol who added that the woman was wearing a seatbelt.

When a consumer buys an airbag-equipped vehicle, they expect the airbags to deploy properly in the event of an accident. Thousands of lives have been saved by airbags; however there has been a shocking increase in the number of injuries and fatalities caused by various airbag systems. Over the years, there have been many technological advances, yet airbag failures continue to occur. In many cases, airbag malfunctions take place in low to moderate-speed accidents where the excess force of the deploying airbag is responsible for the injury and/or death. Other significant airbag malfunctions include failure to deploy and deployment at the wrong time.

Development of the airbag began in the early 1950’s. GM, Ford, and Eaton Corporation were among the pioneers of crash testing to evaluate the airbag. On April 1, 1989 the United States government required the installation of airbags in the production of all new automobiles.
The typical components of a modern airbag system include; crash sensors, a gas generator, an airbag, and a diagnostic module. Some airbag systems also consist of a switch that deactivates the passenger side airbag. Crash sensors are designed to detect a collision by measuring sufficient deceleration of a vehicle. Gas generators instantaneously produce a high volume of gas in order to fill up the airbag and provide a cushion for the moving occupant. The stored airbag becomes fully inflated by the gas in about 30-to-40 milliseconds. Diagnostic modules monitor and confirm the readiness of an airbag system’s components. They processes information and in the event of a moderate to severe crash, they will send a signal to the inflator inside the airbag to inflate.

The majority of the victims of airbag malfunctions consist of short-stature drivers and children. The injuries and deaths of these occupants are often not the result of a faulty airbag. They are mostly due to the manufacturers poor airbag design. Driver’s side airbags deploy forward at 120 to 200 miles per hour and passenger side airbags deploy forward at 90 to 210 miles per hour. Airbags in both positions can impact the occupant with a force as high as 2000 pounds (nhtsa.gov). These airbags are termed overly aggressive airbags. They are designed and tested only for 50th-percentile adult male, about 5’9″ tall and weighing about 167 pounds. The built in danger is the failure of manufacturers to design and test airbags for smaller persons and children, as oppose to only for an “average man.”

According to the NHTSA, between 1990 and 2001, 133 child deaths were caused by airbags in low-severity accidents in which no other significant injuries would likely have been resulted. Of the 133 deaths, 111 were children between the ages of 1 and 11, and 22 of them were infants. In many cases, passenger-side airbags deploy horizontally and directly toward the child. In this case, the airbag is aimed directly at the child’s head or the back of the child’s car seat causing severe and fatal injuries.
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According to a story by NBC News 4, a California man died Sunday in a single-vehicle rollover accident on U.S. 6 just east of Ely, Nevada. Jay Wooten of Fairfield, California, driving his Ford Excursion, swerved to avoid hitting an elk. The Ford Excursion crossed both traffic lanes and rolled over, killing Wooten, according to Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper George Edwards. Thank God that Mr. Wooten’s five passengers, including four children, survived although they were injured and hospitalized.

What caught my eye about this story is that at Bisnar Chase Personal Injury Attorneys we are in the middle of rollover testing of Ford Excursions. Their instability and propensity to roll due to their configuration, handling characteristics and weight distribution is not as surprising as the inability of the vehicle to protect its passengers from injury when it does roll over. One of the astounding things we have documented from our testing is the lack of roof strength.

When turned upside down and dropped from less than a foot the roof pancakes down, leaving no survival space for passengers. Can you image how much more violently the vehicle’s roof hits the ground in a rollover accident? The news article did not mention if Mr. Wooten’s fatal injuries were caused by “roof crush”. However, based upon our test results, I would not be surprised if the Excursion roof crushed in on Mr. Wooten, leaving him no survival space.

A San Pedro woman and her three children were awarded $50 million in punitive damages Wednesday in a wrongful death lawsuit against DaimlerChrysler Corp. in an auto product defect case.

A Los Angeles Superior Court jury found that the auto maker knowingly and intentionally failed to correct an automatic transmission defect in the Dodge Dakota that led to the May 1, 2004 death of 38-year-old Richard Mraz, according to a news article based on wire reports published in the Daily Breeze.

The jury awarded the $50 million to Mraz’s widow, Adriana, and her children.

On March 2, the same jury found DaimlerChrysler liable for the death of Richard Mraz and returned a verdict of $5.2 million in compensatory damages for the family, the article said. Two of the children were Richard Mraz’s stepchildren and one was his biological child, according to the plaintiff’s attorney who was quoted in the article.

Richard Mraz suffered fatal head injuries when the 1992 Dodge Dakota pickup truck he was driving at his work site, the San Pedro/Long Beach Maritime Terminal, ran him over after he got out of the vehicle believing it was in park, the article stated. He died 17 days after the accident.

The jury found that a defect in the transmission was a substantial factor in Mraz’s death, and that DaimlerChrysler was negligent in the design of the vehicle.
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Volkswagen of America Inc. said Monday it would recall 790,000 vehicles because of problems with the brake light switch, according to an Associated Press news report published in the Chicago Sun-Times.

According to an announcement on the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration , the recall involves several vehicles including 1999 to 2006 model years of the Golf and GTI; 2001 to 2005 Jettas; 2001 to 2007 new Beetles and the 2004 R32. This recall is reportedly an extension of an earlier recall announced last year of some Jettas and new Beetles because of the same defect.

Volkswagen told NHTSA that the brake light switches in the vehicles could malfunction if they were not properly installed. The automaker also said the light could stay on or not work at all, which would fail to provide other motorists with the proper braking signal and potentially lead to a crash.

Last year, the company recalled 362,000 Jetta and Beetle sedans because of similar problems with the brake lights. That recall affected Jettas from the 1999 to 2002 model years and new Beetles from the 1998 to 2002 model years.

Officials also said the latest recall is an extension of the previous one because the company “found that there was a broader pool of vehicles that had the defective part.”
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