2009 Vehicle Safety Press Articles

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May 28, 2009

San Francisco Chronicle, "Paralyzed Oakland musician sues Ford, wins"

A federal court jury awarded $18.3 million in damages Wednesday to a Bay Area musician who suffered a fractured spine and was paralyzed when his band's rented Ford van rolled over on an icy highway in 2005, dislodging his seat and pinning him against the roof. More...

May 28, 2009

LA Times, "Land Rover maker ordered to pay $21.1 million in rollover case"

A Los Angeles judge has ordered automaker Jaguar Land Rover to pay $21.1 million to a Simi Valley man who was paralyzed in 2003 when his Land Rover Discovery sport utility vehicle rolled over several times after a collision on the 118 Freeway. More...

May 26, 2009

Portfolio Media, "Punitive Damages Awarded Against Chrysler For Alleged Cover Up Of Deadly Seat Design Defect"

The U.S. Supreme Court has rebuffed DaimlerChrysler Corp.’s request to review a Tennessee Supreme Court decision upholding an award of $13 million in punitive damages to the parents of an 8-month-old boy who died in a 2001 car crash. In June 2001, Rachel Sparkman, Jeremy Flax, Joshua and another passenger were rear-ended by a speeding pickup truck. The back of the front passenger seat collapsed, and the back of that passenger's head collided with the baby's forehead, fracturing the child's skull and causing severe brain damage. He died the next day. More...

May 20, 2009

ABC News, "Chrysler Bankruptcy: Consumer Groups Object, Say 10 Million Vehicle Owners Will Be Left in the Lurch"

Chrysler car owners will be left in the lurch after the automaker's bankruptcy, consumer groups are charging. On Tuesday evening, a host of consumer groups, along with liability attorneys, filed an objection in bankruptcy court to the Chrysler deal. They say the way the deal is structured, the "new" Chrysler would be absolved of liability for any Chrysler car sold prior to the bankruptcy. So if you own a Chrysler vehicle and have an accident that you believe was caused by a manufacturing defect, you would be out of luck. You could not sue Chrysler for damages, they say. More...

May 13, 2009

Knoxville News Sentinel, "Dad raises awareness about 15-passenger vans after daughter's death"

Patrick James was hours away from burying his 10-year-old daughter when he started to learn some disturbing things about her death. Lexie James was killed in July when the van she was riding in spun out of control and flipped over four times on Interstate 26 in South Carolina. Though she was wearing a seat belt, Lexie was somehow thrown from the vehicle and died at the scene. What James didn't know, but would soon discover, was that tests have raised a number of safety questions about 15-passenger vans like the one in which Lexie was riding. The federal government, in fact, has issued four safety warnings about such vehicles since 2001. More...

April 30, 2009

Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "$40M awarded to Georgia woman over faulty Ford"

A Lamar County woman who said a transmission defect in her Ford Explorer led to her paralysis was awarded $40 million in damages by a DeKalb County jury late Wednesday. The jury's award to Jessica Mundy includes $30 million in punitive damages, $9 million in compensatory damages to her and $1 million to her husband. Ford Motor Co. and Legacy Ford in McDonough, where Mundy purchased the 2004 Explorer that ran her over, were defendants in the suit. More...

February 18, 2009

Southeast Texas Record, "Galveston suit blames Rhino ATV for boy's injuries from rollover"

A Santa Fe couple is seeking $3 million in damages from Yamaha Motor Co. Ltd. after their son was injured in a Rhino ATV rollover more than a year ago. Warren and Terry Aldous filed a lawsuit on behalf of Brandon Aldous against Yamaha and numerous other businesses. Court papers say Brandon Aldous was riding a doorless Yamaha Rhino ATV near his parents' residence on June 2, 2007, when the vehicle rolled over as the boy made a turn. Brandon was pinned underneath the ATV, but his mother and a neighbor were able to pull him out. The boy was then taken to the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston where physicians determined he suffered severe injuries to his left leg. More...

January 27, 2009

MSNBC, "Nearly 100 kids died in '07 car backovers; 99 deaths and 2,000 injuries involved those under 14, officials say"

Nearly 100 children were killed and 2,000 injured in 2007 when they were backed over by cars, typically in residential driveways, the government said Tuesday. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released the data in a study evaluating backover deaths and other difficult-to-quantify "non-traffic" deaths and injuries. More....