Illinois Car and Truck Accident Lawyer Blog

The Consumer Product Safety Commission stated that Baja Motorsports of Phoenix is recalling over 300,000 go-karts and minibikes designed for use by children. Nine complaints that the gas caps detached or leaked, and one serious burn injury lead to the recall. (NY Times, C.Jensen, 7/16). The CPSC further released information of 25 reports of the accelerator-throttle sticking.

The agency said the recall was for minibikes with model numbers beginning with HT65, MB165, WR65, MB196, DB30, WR90 and DR90. The recalled go-karts have model numbers BB65, SD65, DN65 and TR65. Model numbers “can be found on the go-cart roll cage and fender or ‘decorative fuel tank’ of the minibikes.”

As a products liability attorney, I urge parents to discontinue their children’s use of these products and follow the recall instructions immediately so as to avoid further and unnecessary injuries.

The National Transportation Safety Board met recently to investigate and determine the cause of the December 20, 2009 accident at the Denver International Airport. (J. Lawy, AP Washington, 7/13). A Continental Airlines Boeing 737 swerved off a runway, across a field, and came to a stop when it crashed into a ditch and caught fire. Fortunately no fatalities resulted, but the plane was destroyed.

Strong crosswinds seem to be the focus of an investigation into why the airliner with 110 passengers aboard veered off the runway. Actions by the air traffic controller as well as the flight’s captain are being examined and questioned. According to Continental, an air traffic controller did not properly warn the pilots of the strong crosswinds recorded just prior to takeoff. The plane’s manufacturer further asserts that the captain did not adequately compensate for the high wind speeds.

As a personal injury attorney, I am hopeful that this investigation allows for safer travel in the future. Fortunately no one was killed in the accident, but lessons should be learned from such a close call.

Unfortunately for Toyota, new information has surfaced in its latest debacle concerning Engine failures in certain Lexus cars. The automaker “knew two years ago about the engine problem behind its latest Lexus recall, even changing the spring part to correct it, but did not think a recall was warranted until recently.” (Y. Kageyama, AP Business, 7/6). Considering the incidents of the past year, as a products liability attorney I am becoming increasingly concerned about all that Toyota knows but is trying to keep quiet.

The latest recall affects 270,000 vehicles that need replaced valve springs. If these crucial parts are not replaced, the engines could stall.

In August 2008, “Toyota changed that spring part, making it thicker, to prevent the problem…[which] is why the latest recall does not affect vehicles produced after August 2008.” However, the fix in 2008 shows that Toyota was aware of the problem in older models then but did not act until now.

Although, “Toyota executives have repeatedly vowed to put customers first… it has been criticized as lagging in its response to quality lapses, and was slapped with a record $16.4 million in the United States for responding too slowly when the recall crisis erupted.” I hope this stalling behavior will not occur in the future as consumers need to know immediately about defects.

Companies like Intel may benefit from “Toyota’s woes with recalls and mysterious acceleration problems.” (J. Quain, NYTimes, 7/7). Intel, for example, has a black box on the horizon that could potentially take the mystery out of many car accidents.

Congress is pushing for event recorders, or black boxes, to be installed in all new vehicles as part of a piece of legislation propelled by the Toyota acceleration issue. As part of the system, “Intel’s event recorder would be able to record basic telemetry of the vehicle and information like whether the seat belts were being used at the time of an accident, and a whole lot more.”

Combining video capabilities with GPS technology would allow the Intel event recorder to know exactly where and when an accident occurred and have up to 30 seconds of video to help piece everything together.

The event recorder “would also be tied directly into a car’s existing computer control modules, so that investigators would know when or if the brakes were applied, for example, or if there was some mechanical malfunction.” Moreover, sophisticated vision systems create the potential for an external camera to know what a traffic signal was at the time of impact or whether the driver disregarded any important roadside signs.

The technological possibilities are seemingly endless, but costs will likely limit the technology that can be required for use. However, as GPS and drowsy driver warning systems are already standard in many vehicles, much of the hardware cost is already included in the vehicle. As a car and truck accident lawyer in Chicago, I am intrigued by the seemingly endless possibilities and am hopeful that the technology will be both effective and affordable.

The AAJ released a commendable statement regarding vehicle safety and consumer protection in May (5/19, AAJ, www.justice.org). In light of the many vehicle safety issues that have occurred this year, Toyota largely being at the forefront, these recommendations should be taken seriously and as an attorney with experience in products liability and motor vehicle accidents, I support the following suggestions.

Congress should “increase civil penalties for safety violations, improve disclosure of “early warning” data, and mandate both “black box” event recorders and brake-override systems in all new vehicles.” Increasing civil penalties for safety violations will lead to automakers being more careful. To date, the limit on civil penalties is $16.4M, this does not adequately serve to deter careless manufacturing and quick reporting of problems.

Congress should also implement enhanced disclosure of “early warning” data is essential so consumer can start taking the necessary precautions immediately. Unfortunately, we have seen time and time again that manufacturers know of safety defects but delay or deny problems. These socially irresponsible behaviors will continue unless Congress requires otherwise.

Lexus says “about 137,000 of its vehicles in the United States may have V-6 or V-8 engines with faulty valve springs and in extremely rare instances, the engine may stop while the vehicle is in operation.” (NY Times, C. Jensen, 7/1). For many, this is just the latest in the safety disaster that has become Toyota.

Toyota’s stated Thursday afternoon that “due to slight variations during the manufacturing process, some foreign material may have contaminated the valve springs resulting in potential breakage.” Consumers should look out for “abnormal engine noise or idling, or stalling as possible signs of breakage.

The models affected are the IS 350, GS 350, GS 460, GS 450h, LS 460, LS 600hL. Lexus said “current model years” were not affected. The Lexus division has stated that it is undertaking investigational steps and will announce a remedy as soon as possible.
As a products liability lawyer, I encourage all Lexus consumers to stay up to date on any future recalls that may affect these vehicles.

As a personal injury lawyer in Chicago, I urge parents to take the following information to heart and not leave their children in hot cars during the summer. This past week, the government decided to join safety groups to warn parents and all adults responsible for children about the extreme dangers of leaving kids in the car during hot summer days. (K. Thomas, AP Washington, 6/25).

Unfortunately, this declaration was in response to surfacing information showing that “deaths of infants and toddlers trapped inside hot vehicles have mounted in recent weeks. A researcher says 18 children have died of hyperthermia since the beginning of the year, eight of them reported since June 13.” Perhaps surprisingly, this recent bout of child fatalities is the largest number of fatalities due to hyperthermia in the first half of a year since the early 1990’s. On average, nearly 40 children perish annually from heat exhaustion in cars.

Lexus announced Friday that it was “recalling about 17,000 of its 2010-model HS 250h hybrid sedans, after testing by federal officials found that too much gasoline had leaked in a rear-impact test”. (NY Times, Wheels, C. Jensen, 6/25). Additionally, Lexus has stated that it has instructed dealers to stop selling the cars until the problem is resolved.

In a statement, “Toyota, the parent company of Lexus, said the HS 250h had passed rear-impact tests without a problem. It said it was investigating to find out why the test conducted by federal officials had a different result.”

The rear-impact test is conducted by “hitting the vehicle from behind with a barrier moving at about 50 miles per hour,” and is performed both by the automaker and occasionally the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to spot check the automaker’s results.

As a car and truck accident attorney, I am hopeful that Lexus takes the NHTSA’s results very seriously and remedies the problem quickly.

As a car and truck accident attorney, I must encourage all drivers to drive with the utmost care, especially young drivers lacking in experience. Jokes, pranks, and dares are never wise when behind the wheel. This week, “four upstate New York teenagers who tried to hold their breath for the time it took their car to go a third of a mile were hurt when the driver fainted.” (AP, 5/26).

Authorities say four teenages boys were “traveling together late Monday night when they decided to try to hold their breath while riding through Garbutt, a rural Rochester-area hamlet that's just three-tenths of a mile long.” The 19- year old driver fainted while holding his breath, causing the car to hit a boulder. The driver is paraplegic for whom the car was specially equipped to drive. Fortunately all four teens were okay after being treated at a hospital.

As a personal injury attorney, I hope all airlines take this incident seriously and take more care ensuring all passengers are off the plane in the future. After a sleeping passenger was left about a flight for four house after landing in Philadelphia, Airline officials are trying to figure out how the lapse occurred. (Philadelphia, AP, 5/26).

According to police and the Transportation Security Administration, “the passenger didn't wake up when her United Express flight from Dulles airport outside Washington landed shortly after midnight Tuesday. At about 4 a.m., a cleaning crew found her.”

United Airlines says, “they're working with a regional partner carrier to determine why the plane wasn't cleared upon landing.”

Nissan announced this week that it is recalling almost 42,000 of its 2010 Infiniti and Nissan trucks because poor welding on a suspension part may result in its failure. (NY Times, Wheels, C. Jensen, 5/21).

According to the automaker, the failure of a cylindrical collar that is part of the lower control link assembly could “allow the vehicle handling characteristics to deteriorate.” The vehicles included in the recall are the 2010 Nissan Titan, Armada, Frontier, Xterra and Pathfinder as well as the Infiniti QX56.

As a car and truck accident lawyer in Chicago, I always encourage consumers to maintain up to date knowledge regarding recalled vehicles and to act swiftly if their vehicles are affected.

General Motors announced recently that it is recalling all Hummer H3s produced since the 2006 model year to fix a portion of the hood that can detach during driving. (D. Stumpf, AP Auto, 5/5).

The recall is voluntary by the automaker after two complaints in the U.S. and three in Japan, and affects nearly 165,000 Hummer H3s and H3Ts in the U.S. A Hummer spokesman says, “a device on the hood called a hood louver (LOO-ver) can come loose and possibly detach while driving.” The faulty device helped to cool the engine on older models but is purely decorative on the newer H3.

As a automobile accident attorney in Chicago, I encourage all consumers to stay on top of auto recalls and act quickly if your vehicle is affected to avoid needless injuries.