2008 Vehicle Safety Press Articles

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December 11, 2008

Law360.com, New York, "CPSC Mulls Standards As Rhino Plaintiffs Seek MDL"

As the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission considers new standards for Yamaha Motor Corp. USA's Rhino off-road vehicle and other currently unregulated "utility terrain vehicles," plaintiffs suing over injuries they blame on the Rhino have asked the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation to centralize their cases. The Rhino has caught the attention of the CPSC, a spokeswoman for the commission told Law360 on Thursday. "We can confirm that the CPSC is investigating the Yamaha Rhino. There have been a number of incidents and that is a product we are looking into right now," CPSC spokeswoman Sonia Hayes-Pleasant said. More...

November 7, 2008

Law360, "Yamaha Facing More Suits Over Rhino Accidents"

Days after it was revealed that the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission was investigating the Yamaha Rhino off-road vehicle, two new lawsuits have been filed against Yamaha Motor Co. Ltd. alleging that design flaws in the vehicle make it dangerously unstable. One of the suits was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee and involved an 11-year-old girl injured in a Rhino accident, while the other, filed in state court in Georgia, involved a 47-year-old former Air Force captain. There currently more than 200 lawsuits in state and federal court over the Rhino, and more than 30 deaths related to the vehicle have been reported. More...

October 26, 2008

Associated Press, "SUV Collides With Taurus. Fiery Crash - 4 Tennessee High School Cheerleaders Die"

A rural East Tennessee community was grieving Saturday for four high school cheerleaders who died in a fiery car crash hours after they had been cheering on their football team. A sport utility vehicle carrying the cheerleaders collided with an oncoming car late Friday night on a wet, foggy highway in Scott County, northwest of Knoxville, authorities said. A passenger in the car also was killed. More...

October 21, 2008

Memphis Commercial Appeal, "Families, schools mourn girls killed in Yamaha Rhino ATV crash"

The families, friends and schools of two 11-year-old girls killed over the weekend in an ATV accident struggled to deal with their deaths Monday. Emily Bates and Lauren Dilworth were killed shortly before 6 p.m. Saturday when the Yamaha Rhino four-wheeler they were riding in flipped as it went off the pavement in the Southern Trails subdivision off Miss. 305 in the Lewisburg community near Olive Branch. More...

October 18, 2008

WESH.com (Orlando, FL), "5 Killed When SUV Rolls Over On Turnpike"

Five people died and three others were injured after a sport utility vehicle rolled over on the Florida Turnpike Friday night. The five people died after the crash at about 11:30 p.m. near Southern Boulevard in West Palm Beach. The Florida Highway Patrol said the 2000 Ford Expedition blew a tire, which caused the driver to lose control of the vehicle and roll into a 15-foot-deep canal. More...

September 16, 2008

Associated Press, "Child dies caught in car's power window"

A 3-year-old boy died after his neck became wedged between a car's power window and door frame, police said Friday. Arturo Campos was apparently playing with the power window controls in the passenger seat while his father spoke on a nearby pay phone, officials said. More...

September 12, 2008

LA Times, "Boy, 3, fatally injured by car's power window"

The boy wedged himself in the window and door frame while unattended. The death is being considered an accident and no charges are expected to be filed. A 3-year-old Los Angeles boy died after he wedged himself in a power window and car door frame when his father briefly left him alone, authorities said today. The boy, Arturo Campos, was apparently left unattended in a vehicle while his father made a telephone call late Thursday, said Capt. Ed Winter of the Los Angeles County Coroner's office. More...

September 9, 2008

CNN, "Ford vehicles recalled for fire risk; National Highway Traffic Safety Administration warns that defective cruise control switch can cause fires in some Ford, Lincoln and Mercury cars and trucks"

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has put out another recall warning the owners of some Ford, Lincoln and Mercury SUV's, pickup trucks, vans and cars that their vehicles have a defect that could cause them to catch fire at any time. It's the second advisory NHTSA has put out on this problem, which it describes as a "defective cruise control switch that could lead to a fire at any time, even while the vehicle is turned off, parked and unattended." More...

August 18, 2008

Tulsa World , "ATV crashes kill two, hurt one"

Two people died and a third person was injured in all-terrain vehicle accidents over the weekend, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol reported. More...

August 18, 2008

News-Express, "Yamaha Rhino ATV accidents claim two lives over weekend"

An ATV accident on Sunday claimed the life of a 12-year-old Dorton girl. More...

August 4, 2008

Shreveport Times, "Child killed in Bienville Mitsubishi SUV rollover"

A 12-year-old died Sunday when a sport utility vehicle rolled several times in Bienville Parish. The 2002 Mitsubishi Montero was headed east when it drove into the median. The driver got the vehicle back onto the highway but over corrected, police said. The child, who was sitting in the SUV's cargo area, was ejected and killed. More...

August 2, 2008

The Salt Lake Tribune, "Two die on I-15 in Mitsubishi SUV rollover near Provo"

An SUV carrying seven people traveling to a soccer tournament in Salt Lake City rolled on Interstate 15 near Provo Saturday, killing a woman and a teenager. Police said a Mitsubishi SUV carrying two adults, four 15-year-old boys and a 13-year-old boy lost control for an unknown reason. The SUV ran off the road on the right side, and when the driver pulled it back to the road she over-corrected and the vehicle rolled. More...

July 28, 2008

Rapid City Journal, "Man killed in Mitsubishi SUV rollover crash"

Marc Dreis, 49, of Meadow was killed early Sunday morning in an accident when he was driving east on state Hwy. 20 about 17 miles east of Bison in Perkins County. The highway patrol said his 2006 Mitsubishi crossed the centerline and went into the north ditch, where he overcorrected, causing the vehicle to roll several times, coming to rest on its wheels. More...

June 28, 2008

Press Republican (New York), "10-year-old saves dad's life in flipped Yamaha Rhino ATV"

Lifting up an all-terrain vehicle, running almost a mile and driving a large diesel truck sound like the actions of a grown man or woman. However, it was these feats that 11-year-old Ryan Mills accomplished last year to save his father's life. On April 9, 2007, Ryan, who was 10 at the time, was riding with his father, Albert Mills, on a Yamaha Rhino ATV through the woods near their home in Clintonville. The vehicle flipped on a turn and landed on top of Albert, pinning one of his legs underneath. More...

June 23, 2008

Nashville Post, "Local attorney takes on Ford over vehicle fires"

The big cases that plaintiff's lawyer Mark Chalos is pursuing right now are all about switches and ashes. Chalos, a partner at the local office of the national litigation firm Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, has filed suit against Ford Motor Co. on behalf of Nicole and Duanisha Mathews, who narrowly escaped from a burning Goodlettsville home one morning in June of last year. The lawsuit, filed in Davidson County Circuit Court on June 13, claims that a 2000 Ford Expedition - parked in the home's garage with its engine off - started the fire. More...

June 20, 2008

Fulton County Daily Report, "Federal Jury Awards $3.5 Million for Fatal Rollover of General Motors Chevy Blazer SUV"

A federal jury on Tuesday found General Motors at fault in a rollover accident that killed a 14-year-old boy, awarding his parents $3.5 million following a two-week trial. There was never an offer to settle and GM's attorneys have announced their intention to ask the judge to set aside the verdict. More...

June 9, 2008

Portfolio Media, "Jury: Bad Brakes To Cost Kia $6M"

A New Jersey jury has handed consumers a $6 million victory in a product liability class action alleging that certain models of Kia Motors America Inc.'s Sephia had defective brakes. The verdict, rendered Friday in the Superior Court of New Jersey in Union County, N.J., came after a month-long trial in which jurors found that a class of New Jersey consumers was entitled to receive $6,029,250 in damages due to a defect design in the brake system of the 1995-2001 Kia Sephia. More...

June 4, 2008

Detroit Free Press, "Rules on car roofs need to be better, senators warn"

Key U.S. senators warned federal auto safety regulators today that Congress would act if regulators produce unacceptable and ineffective rules for strengthening vehicle roofs to protect people in rollover crashes. The debate over the exact cause of deaths in rollover accidents, which claimed 9,362 lives in 2006, and how much blame rests with a vehicle's roof strength has raged for years among safety advocates and automakers. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been working on a new plan for boosting roof-crush standards ahead of a July 1 deadline, since its first proposal issued in August 2005 faced sharp criticism from automakers and safety groups. More...

May 28, 2008

Southeast Texas Record, "Suit alleges Yamaha 'Rhino' ATV unreasonably dangerous"

While riding as a passenger in a Yamaha Rhino on a relatively flat terrain, Bossier City resident Ryan Rogers was injured when the ATV rolled toward the passenger side. Alleging the ATV was unreasonably dangerous, Ryan and Janison Rogers filed suit against Yamaha USA, Yamaha Manufacturing and Yamaha Motor on May 27 in the Marshall division of the Eastern District of Texas. More...

May 19, 2008

Detroit News, "NHTSA to investigate 1.7 million Ford Windstar vans for cruise control defect"

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened a preliminary defect investigation into 1.7 million Ford Windstar vans. The vehicles have a cruise control deactivation switch that's been recalled in nearly 10 million other Ford vehicles. NHTSA said they've received 130 complaints of fires in the vans, with 36 complaints in the last year. Two of the fires caused structural damage to homes, NHTSA said. More...

May 16, 2008

3TV (Phoenix, AZ), "Teen dies in Yamaha Rhino ATV rollover accident"

A 15-year-old boy has died of injuries he suffered during an off-road-vehicle rollover Friday afternoon in the far Northwest Valley. Maricopa County Sheriff's Investigators said the boy was among four teens riding on the small four-wheeled Yamaha vehicle called a Rhino when it overturned near 102nd Avenue and Jomax Road at about 4:00pm. The teen was taken to a local hospital where he died of his injuries. The other three teenage boys were not seriously hurt.

To learn more about Yamaha Rhino rollover injuries and lawsuits, please visit www.yamaharhinorolloverandrecall.com.

April 13, 2008

New York Times, Faulty Ford cruise control switch blamed for 1,500 fires

After six recalls to correct problems with millions of Ford Motor Company cruise-control switches blamed for almost 1,500 fires, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration took an unusual step. In February, it issued a consumer advisory urging owners whose vehicles had not yet been fixed to have the switches disconnected immediately. More...

March 12, 2008

CNN, "Study links rollover deaths to weak roofs on cars"

The insurance industry released a major study on Wednesday regarding rollover auto accidents. More than ten thousand people die each year in rollover crashes. The study, which was conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, concluded that many of these deaths could be prevented with stronger roofs on vehicles. Rollovers are violent accidents, and the institute says roofs that crush can too easily lead to needless deaths and injuries. The institute tested the roofs of sports utility vehicles to see how much pressure they could take before collapsing. Although the models looked the same afterward, the force it took to crush each one varied. More...

February 27, 2008

Portfolio Media (NY), "Mitsubishi Ordered To Pay $11M In SUV Death Case"

A Florida state court jury ordered Mitsubishi Motors Corp. to pay $11 million to the parents of a 25-year-old man who died after being thrown through the window of a Mitsubishi sport utility vehicle in a 2004 crash. On Tuesday, the jury found that there was a design defect in the SUV and that the defect caused Scott Laliberte's death, according an attorney for the plaintiffs (Laliberte's parents). The jury award totaled $11 million in compensatory damages. More...

February 26, 2008

Palm Beach Post , "Mitsubishi must pay $11 million to family of man ejected from SUV"

In a products liability case watched across continents, a jury this afternoon ordered Mitsubishi Motors to pay nearly $11 million in damages to a Maine couple whose son died after being partially ejected from a Nativa SUV. More...

February 25, 2008

IV Press Online, "Two Young Persons Killed Yesterday by Yamaha Rhinos at Same Dunes"

The names of victims involved in two separate fatal crashes that occurred within hours of each other at the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area were released Monday. Yucaipa resident Stephanie Ann Katin, 26, was killed Saturday after being partially ejected from a rented Yamaha Rhino all-terrain vehicle that slid sideways down a 30-foot sand dune. More...

February 25, 2008

Detroit News, "Ford faces lengthy lawsuits"

Carmaker wins merger of cases in Texas over faulty switches, but it still has other court fights.

Ford Motor Co. won a legal battle last week to merge 77 lawsuits filed in Texas over a series of fires linked to a faulty cruise control deactivation switch. But the Dearborn automaker still faces many other court fights stemming from a series of engine fires linked to a faulty switch in 10 million vehicles that Ford has recalled in seven campaigns since 1999. Combined, the campaigns represent one of the largest recalls in U.S. history. The $21 Texas Instruments switches were installed in 16 million Ford vehicles over a decade before the automaker stopped using them in 2002. The switches have been linked to nearly 550 vehicle fires and 1,500 complaints. And now Ford faces more than 125 lawsuits around the country. More...

February 4, 2008

Palm Beach Post, "Suit Blames Mitsubishi For Design Flaws In Rollover Crash"

A Maine couple has gone to court against Mitsubishi Motors claiming the auto giant covered up design flaws that caused the death of their 25-year-old son. In the first day of what is expected to be a three-week trial, attorneys representing Donna and Peter Laliberte told a Palm Beach County jury that the auto manufacturer was well aware of defects with the seat belt and seat recliner in the Montero Sport. In fact, the plaintiffs charged that Mitsubishi took the unprecedented step of putting out a new version of the Montero Sport halfway through the 2000 model year to correct the flaws.

January 18, 2008

AP, "Auto Recalls Increase in 2007"

Automakers recalled nearly 15 million vehicles for repairs at dealerships last year, the government reported Thursday, an increase of about 30 percent over 2006. Automakers issued 588 separate recalls involving 14.5 million vehicles in 2007, or about 30 percent more vehicles than the previous year, according to data released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In 2006, the industry recalled 11.2 million vehicles as part of 490 individual recalls. More...