Houston Injury and Accident Lawyer & Attorney : Vujasinovic & Beckcom Law Firm : Workplace Injuries, Car Accidents, Insurance Claims : Harris County, Texas

According to published reports, Firestone has settled a case with a college student who was paralyzed after his Firestone tires detreaded.

The college student had purchased a remodeled SUV from a seller who equipped it with four Firestone radial tires.  The front left tire detreaded, and the vehicle rolled over and crashed. 

The student sued Firestone, alleging products liability claims and failure to warn of the dangers of aging tires.  Evidence showed that the tires had been made by Firestone in the first several weeks of 1990 and then stored in air-vented storage until being installed in the vehicle in 2005.

The case settled for a confidential amount.

The picture to the left shows an example of a safety feature (a belt wedge) that many tire manufacturers either do not use or don't use enough of in order to save money and increase profit (and increase the dangers to their customers).

Injured in an auto accident or by a defective tire?

The product liability attorneys at Vujasinovic & Beckcom frequently handle wrongful death, auto accidents, and product liablity cases.  Call toll free 877.724.7800.

About our law firm

Our law firm is based in Houston, Texas.  We handle personal injury and wrongful death cases across the State of Texas and beyond.  Both partners are Board Certified in Personal Injury Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.

To read more about the firm, or to request an appointment with one of the firm's attorneys, please visit our main website at

www.vbattorneys.com

Want to read more about Texas accident and injury law?

Please take a moment to read the following articles:

1.  How to select a Texas lawyer for your injury or accident case

2.  Common misconceptions in Texas truck accident cases

3.  Five things that could wreck your Texas car or truck accident case

4.  The insurance company wants me to give a statement - what should I do?

5.  How to beat the insurance companies at their own game - ask these 5 questions

6.  Do I need a lawyer for my car or truck accident case?

7.  What to do immediately if you are involved in a Texas car or truck accident

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Various newspapers today are reporting the tragic story of 2 people killed and 13 injured on their way to a family vacation in Mexico.  The family was driving from Fort Worth and the accident happened just south of San Antonio near the town of Natalia.

According to reports, the right rear tire of the van blew out, causing the driver to lose control.

You can read stories about this tragic accident by clicking on the links below:

2 Dead, 13 Hurt in Van Crash Near San Antonio

Van crash involving Fort Worth-area family leaves 2 dead, 13 injured

15 Passenger Vans Should Be Recalled

Our lawyers have worked on 15 passenger van cases.  We know that 15 passenger vans, without appropriate modifications, are very dangerous vehicles.

To order a copy of an article Mr. Beckcom wrote more than 4 years ago on the dangers of 15 passenger vans, please contact us toll free at 877.724.7800.

The sad thing is, these vans are often used to transport kids, church groups, athletic groups, and, like the situation recently, families going on vacation.

There are too many problems with 15-passenger vans to list them all here in one post.  However, some of the problems include:

1. They are unstable, particularily when partially or fully loaded;
2. The seatbelt systems often don't work right, and don't protect passengers adequately;
3. The design puts extra weight on the rear tires, increasing the chance of a blow out
4. They have problems with "understeer" and "oversteer," which makes them hard to control.

There are ways to design these vans to be much safer.  Regrettably, and inexplicably, the manufacturers have refused, for the most part, to re-design the vans to be safe for the kids, church groups, sports teams, and family vacationers that use these vehicles.

One wonders, after so many people have been killed and injured, what it will take for the van manufacturers to design their products to protect passengers in foreseeable crashes?

Want to read more about Texas accident and injury law?

Please take a moment to read the following articles:

1.  How to select a Texas lawyer for your injury or accident case

2.  Common misconceptions in Texas truck accident cases

3.  Five things that could wreck your Texas car or truck accident case

4.  The insurance company wants me to give a statement - what should I do?

5.  How to beat the insurance companies at their own game - ask these 5 questions

6.  Do I need a lawyer for my car or truck accident case?

7.  What to do immediately if you are involved in a Texas car or truck accident

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A verdict was reached in favor of a man who suffered fatal head injuries when he was partially ejected through the right rear window of the SUV in which he was a passenger.

According to reports, the driver lost control of the SUV.  The SUV then rolled over.  During the rollover sequence, the seat belt failed to restrain the man, and his head was ejected from the vehicle.  He suffered fatal injuries as a result.

His parent and his estate sued the manufacturer of the SUV, alleging that the front passenger seat belt was defective, specifically because it was designed in a way that permitted it to extend too far in an accident.

The case was styled Laliberte v. Mitsubishi Motors Corp..  It was tried in Palm Beach Co. Cir., No. 50 2005 CA 6369 AI, February 26, 2008.

Did you know that car manufacturers are required to design their cars so that the passengers and drivers are able to survive in routine and expected accidents?

This is called the legal doctrine of "crashworthiness."  The legal doctrine has been around for almost 40 years. 

You can read more about crashworthiness by clicking this link.

Despite being required to manufacture safe cars and trucks, some vehicle manufacturers still do not take proper steps to design their vehicles safely. 

Do you think vehicle manufacturers should be requires to design their vehicles with proper safety features built in? 

Or, if someone is in a wreck caused by another driver, should that other driver bear all the fault for the person's injuries even if those injuries would not have occurred with a safer car design?

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Car and truck accidents happen everyday.  And, unfortunately, people are tragically injured or killed every day in car and truck accidents.

Many times, these accidents are caused by negligence.  However, did you know that in some cases, part of the negligence can be put on the manufacturer of the vehicle for making the injuries worse or for failing to protect drivers who die in survivable car wrecks?

Since the mid-1960s, vehicle manufacturers have been required to design cars that will protect occupants from severe injury or death in most crashes.

This legal doctrine, called "crashworthiness," recognizes that crashes are going to happen no matter what, and that vehicle manufacturers should take that into account and take reasonable steps to protect people who are in crashes.

Seatbelts, airbags, and safe tires are some common examples of developments that have resulted.

"Crashworthiness" really means 5 things:

1.  control energy from the crash;
2.  maintain survival space inside the car or truck;
3.  "package" each seating position;
4.  adequately restrain occupants and prevent ejections; and
5.  prevent post-crash fires.

Some car makers are constantly upgrading their techonology to increase safety.  Some of these safety features, however, have been available to all car makers for decades.

For reasons unexplained, however, some car makers refuse to incorporate basic safety features.  As a result, literally thousands of people have been needlessly injured or killed.

Remember, cars must be designed to a reasonably safe level.  Car makers must account for foreseeable crashes and design their cars so that the people inside are reasonably protected from unnecessary injury or death. 

Millions of cars do not meet these standards and their occupants are at a significantly higher risk of getting injured or killed in unremarkable, standard car accidents. 

Given the devastating nature of the injuries and deaths, it is important for the legal system to continue to force car makers to improve the safety of their cars.  Otherwise, the innocent injured person, his or her family, and the citizen taxpayers are left footing the bill for the negligence of car makers.

Examples of defective car and truck components include:

1.  Defective airbags;
2.  Defective seats and seat backs;
3.  Defective tires;
4.  Weak roofs that crush if a car rolls over;
5.  Weak side glass, causing partial ejection;
6.  Lack of electronic stability control in rollover-prone cars and SUVs;
7.  Fuel systems that cause post-crash fires;

These defects, and many others, are often preventable, in a cost-efficient way, by the companies that manufacture cars and trucks.

Have a question about defective car, truck, or tire cases? 

Feel free to call us with your questions.

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Recently, a jury in Georgia rendered a verdict of $3 million dollars for a 76 year old woman who was rear-ended by a dump truck. 

According to reports, the woman was thrown rearward after the seat in her Ford Tempo collapsed.  She hit her head, suffered burst fractures at T12 and a closed-head injury.  She later died of her injures.  Her medical expenses totaled $181,000.00.  She is survived by two adult kids, her grandkids, and her great-grandkids.

Her lawyers discovered that the seatback in the Ford car was unreasonably dangerous and prone to collapse in relatively minor crashes.  They claimed that the car should have been recalled.  They showed the jury evidence that Ford failed to test the seatback in the car before selling it to the public.

Ford claimed that the crash was too severe for the seat to withstand the forces in the crash.

However, according to reports, the defense experts hired by Ford agreed at trial that the crash forces were almost identical to the forces in government-mandated tests which Ford failed to do.

Want to read more about Texas accident and injury law?

Please take a moment to read the following articles:

1.  How to select a Houston lawyer for you injury or accident case

2.  Common misconceptions in Houston truck accident cases

3.  Five things that could wreck your Houston car or truck accident case

4.  The insurance company wants me to give a statement - what should I do?

5.  How to beat the insurance companies at their own game - ask these 5 questions

6.  Do I need a lawyer for my Houston car or truck accident case?

7.  What to do immediately if you are involved in a Houston car or truck accident

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks