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Defective Seat Belt Lawsuits, Defective Safety Belt
and Shoulder Strap Lawsuits, Deadly Vehicle Accident Lawsuits,
Texas Deadly Defective Seatbelt
Lawsuits, Defective Safety Restraint Design Lawsuits, and
Fatal One Automobile Crash Lawsuits
by Texas One Car Accident Defective Seatbelt
Crashworthiness
Lawyer Jason S. Coomer
Defective
seatbelts and/or
defective airbags in automobiles can turn a simple
automobile accident into a fatal automobile collision,
deadly car wreck, or catastrophic injury crash. In
designing automobiles, manufacturers know that it is
important to design vehicles with safety features that
protect occupants. Failure to design safe vehicles
that are crashworthy, can result in a vehicle collision that
injures or kills drivers and passengers as well as a
crashworthiness product liability lawsuit.
If you have
lost a loved one in a fatal defective seatbelt automobile crash,
failed seatbelt restraint collision, or other serious
vehicle accident , feel free to
submit an
inquiry or
send an e-mail to Texas
Defective Seatbelt Accident lawyer Jason Coomer.
Automobile Accident Defective Safety Belt
Lawsuits, Automobile Seatbelt Failure Crash
Lawsuits, Automobile Wreck Defective Shoulder Belt Lawsuits and Fatal Automobile Collision
Defective Safety Restraint Device Lawsuits (Texas
Defective Seatbelt and Safety Restraint Device Lawyer)
Defective Safety Belts, Shoulder Belts,
and other restraining safety devices in an automobile can
cause catastrophic injuries or even death to a driver or
passengers during an
automobile crash.
Because seatbelts have a variety of
moving parts, it is important to understand how the moving
parts work and if each of the parts are working correctly when investigating a defective seat belt fatal
accident or defective seatbelt catastrophic injury car
crash. This investigation should look at the overall
design of the restraint devices in the vehicle and compare
it to the injuries sustained by the driver and passengers as
well as determine if any individual part of each safety
belt, should belt, child safety seat, airbag, and other
safety devices were working properly.
Typically, defective seatbelt lawsuits
and defective safety restraint device lawsuits can be broken down into many
categories of defects.
Automobile Accident Defective Safety Belt Latch
Lawsuits, Automobile Seatbelt Latch Failure Crash
Lawsuits, Automobile Wreck Defective Shoulder Belt Latch Lawsuits and Fatal Automobile Collision
Defective Safety Restraint Latch Device Lawsuits (Texas
Defective Seatbelt Latch and Safety Restraint Latch Device
Lawyer)
One such category of defective safety
belt and defective seatbelt lawsuits are defective seat belt
latch lawsuits, defective shoulder strap latch lawsuits, and
defective safety restraint latch lawsuits. In
investigating a defective seatbelt latch lawsuit, the
defective seatbelt latch lawyer should remember that a seatbelt latch should never
unlatch inadvertently. The only time it should unlatch is
when the user chooses to unlatch it by pushing whatever
apparatus is required to disengage the latch.
Sometimes a
buckle will disengage on its own. Sometimes a latch plate
will never securely lock into the buckle and will pull out
with little or no effort. These are just two examples of
some of the more common latch defects. Inertial unlatching,
inadvertent unlatching and false latching are the most
commonly encountered latch defects. Inertial unlatching is a
situation in which a latch plate will release out of the
buckle during a collision. This is commonly a result of an
external force applied to certain components of the
seatbelt. Allegations of inertial unlatching have been
around since the 1970s and were dismissed by car
manufacturers. Subsequently, evidence of inertial unlatching
has made it a real issue and a viable defect claim. This
defect has been identified in seatbelt systems in which the
buckle is housed in a rigid stock secured to the vehicle’s
frame. With force to the bottom of the stock, the latchplate
can be released from the buckle. That is not the only way
inertial unlatching can occur. Investigate the possibility
of inertial unlatching when considering a failed seatbelt
case.
Inadvertent unlatching can be caused by flying debris
or flailing limbs contacting the buckle release button
during a rollover or other collision. When a foreseeable
accident occurs, there is often flying debris throughout the
vehicle, and occupants’ limbs are prone to flailing. These
scenarios are foreseeable in a collision and seatbelt
buckles are intended to stay latched even in the presence of
flying debris contacting the buckle release button. Some
buckles are better than others at withstanding contact from
flying debris. Chrysler’s Generation 3 seatbelt buckles that
were installed in many Chrysler products from 1993-2003 were
especially susceptible to inadvertent unlatching. If there
is a basis for believing that your occupant was belted
before the accident but during the accident scenario became
unbuckled, investigate the possibility of inadvertent
unlatching. False-latching occurs when the latch plate
looks, feels and sounds like it is secured in the buckle but
is not securely locked in place. Chrysler’s Generation 3
seatbelt buckles that were installed in many Chrysler
products from 1993-2003 were especially susceptible to
false-latching due to the spacing and structure of their
buckles. These buckles were laid out in a way that a user
could fully insert the latch plate into the buckle but miss
the entire locking mechanism and therefore, never secure the
buckle.
A post collision analysis of the buckle can often
indicate if false-latching is a concern. When a seatbelt
latch fails it is possible the police report will state, and
may be corroborated by first responders and witnesses, that
the occupant was not wearing a seatbelt. As discussed above,
latches can fail and occupants can appear no longer belted
after an accident. Thoroughly analyze the seatbelts and
interview all witnesses to see if there is any evidence of
usage and/or the possibility of the seatbelt failing. Do not
dismiss a case for lack of seatbelt use without
investigating the seatbelt issues discussed above.
Automobile Accident Defective Safety Belt Spooling
Lawsuits, Automobile Seatbelt Spooling Failure Crash
Lawsuits, Automobile Wreck Defective Shoulder Belt Spooling Lawsuits and Fatal Automobile Collision
Defective Safety Restraint Spooling Device Lawsuits (Texas
Defective Spooling Seatbelt and Safety Restraint Device
Lawyer)
Another category of defective safety belt
and defective seatbelt lawsuits are defective seatbelt
spooling lawsuits, defective shoulder strap spooling
lawsuits, and defective safety restraint spooling lawsuits.
In investigating a defective seatbelt spooling lawsuit, the
defective seatbelt spooling lawyer should remember that a seatbelt
retractor device should keep the driver and passengers in a
vehicle properly restrained during a collision. The
seatbelt retractor should lock the seatbelt and hold the
driver and passengers in place preventing them from hitting
the windshield or other parts of the inside of the vehicle
that could cause serious injury or death. In order
words a proper functioning retractor should not release
excess slack during a collision allowing the occupants to
move and potentially suffer serious or fatal injuries.
Seatbelt and safety belt spooling occurs when an excess amount of webbing is
introduced into a seatbelt during a collision or rollover
event because of a defect in the retractor device. When a
defective retractor fails to properly lock, excessive
seatbelt webbing can be released out of the defective
retractor and results in excess seatbelt webbing or slack in
the seatbelt that can prevent the driver or passengers from
being safely held in place causing a catastrophic or fatal
injury in what should have been an injury free collision.
Seatbelt spooling can happen
for many reasons. Regardless of the reason, the seatbelt
should not spool-out and fail to keep a driver or passenger properly
restrained during a collision or rollover event. If
in post-collision the post accident investigation, the seatbelt is found with excess slack in
the belt, it is important to carefully consider and analyze the possibility of
a spooling defect. Also, if a driver or passenger hit the windshield
or appears to have moved a lot when they should have been properly restrained,
it is important to consider the possibility of spooling and
a defective seatbelt retractor device.
Through
pictures or post-collision vehicle inspections, the presence
of too much webbing in the belt can often be identified. The
defective retractor device often cannot be identified by a cursory
examination of the vehicle wreckage, but typically is only identified
by experienced defective seatbelt spooling lawyers and
the use of defective seatbelt spooling experts. Even if it
can be determined that spooling
happened, it often takes an experienced defective seatbelt
lawyer or expert to determine the cause of the defective seatbelt retractor. Sometimes a seatbelt will
spool-out simply as a result of the retractor failing to
lock up during a collision. Please keep in mind that retractors are
designed to be triggered by
certain events. They are created to lock up when there is
force applied in one direction or another. For example, a
retractor obviously should lock with the force of a
high-speed front-end collision. In the front-end
collision, a secure shoulder belt should restrain the driver
and passengers in the seats and prevent injurious contacts
with the steering wheel and windshield. In front-end
collision cases, defective spooling causing a slack or
loosely fitting shoulder belt could fail to hold a driver or
passenger in their seat and allow them to be thrown into the
steering wheel, windshield, or other parts of the interior
of a vehicle.
A defective retractor can also fail to lock
during a rollover collision, allowing to excess webbing to be introduced into the
seatbelts and allowing drivers and passengers to be thrown
free during the rollover. Traditional seatbelt systems have
been typically ill-equipped to
account for the vehicle dynamics of a rollover. In a
rollover, however, seatbelts are critical in limiting
occupant excursion. Occupant excursion is the extent to
which the driver's and passenger's bodies move out of their original seating
position during a collision event. Typically, the greater
the excursion, the greater the chance of injury. Many
retractors, by design, let out excess slack during a
rollover because the mechanism for locking the retractor is
ineffective while the vehicle is rolling. Instead of staying
locked through the entirety of a rollover event, some
seatbelt retractors will lock and unlock as the vertical and
horizontal forces on the vehicle change. Retractors should
stay locked during the entirety of a collision.
A retractor
staying locked throughout a rollover is essential to
limiting occupant excursion. When investigating and pleading
a design defect seatbelt case, always be current on what
safer alternative designs were available when the vehicle
was manufactured. There are multiple safer alternative
designs on the market that can alleviate spooling. Some
automobile manufacturers incorporate more than one retractor
into their seatbelt systems in case one fails. Rollover
fired seatbelt pretensioners were developed in the past ten
years to address many of the retractor issues related to
rollovers. They are activated when a rollover is sensed and
automatically pull in and lock the seatbelt. Seat
integrated, or All-Belts to Seats, systems are systems where
the seatbelt housing is located in the seat and not the
B-Pillar. Also, Web-Grabbers help alleviate the chances of
spooling. All of these are safer alternative designs that
help to significantly reduce occupant excursion in a
collision event. When investigating a design defect seatbelt
case, determine what safer alternative designs were
economically and technologically feasible at the time the
vehicle was manufactured.
Retractors can fail to lock because of a
variety of defects including design defects and
manufacturing defects.
Automobile Accident Defective Safety Belt Webbing
Lawsuits, Automobile Seatbelt Webbing Failure Crash
Lawsuits, Automobile Wreck Defective Shoulder Belt Webbing Lawsuits and Fatal Automobile Collision
Defective Safety Restraint Webbing Device Lawsuits (Texas
Defective Webbing Seatbelt and Safety Restraint Device
Lawyer)
Another category of defective safety belt
and defective seatbelt lawsuits are defective seatbelt
webbing lawsuits, defective shoulder strap webbing lawsuits,
and defective webbing manufacturing lawsuits. In
investigating a defective seatbelt webbing lawsuit, the
defective seatbelt webbing lawyer should remember that seatbelt
webbing should not break or come apart in most vehicle
collisions. Seatbelt webbing that has broken has
probably been cut or was the result of a seatbelt
manufacturing defect. In order words seatbelt webbing
should not rip or tear apart during a collision allowing the
occupants to move and potentially suffer serious or fatal
injuries.
The presence of ripped or
torn safety belt webbing should raise a red flag that there
may be a defect or manufacturing flaw in the safety belt
webbing. When the seatbelt tears or is ripped in half
during an accident, something has probably gone terribly
wrong. Seat belt webbing is designed to withstand the forces
of most survivable collisions without ripping or tearing.
Torn or ripped seatbelt webbing might occur because of a
defect or manufacturing flaw in the webbing itself, such as
material or weaving deficiencies.
Ripped or torn webbing might also be the
consequence of some other type of automobile defect
including defective spooling, defective detractor, or
defective safety design.
Automobile Accident Defective Safety Restraint Design
Lawsuits, Automobile Seatbelt Design Crash
Lawsuits, Automobile Wreck Defective Shoulder Belt Design Lawsuits and Fatal Automobile Collision
Defective Safety Restraint Design Lawsuits (Texas
Defective Seatbelt and Safety Restraint Device Design Lawyer)
Another category of defective safety belt
and defective seatbelt lawsuits are defective seatbelt
design lawsuits, defective shoulder strap design lawsuits,
and defective safety restraint design lawsuits. In
investigating a defective seatbelt design lawsuit, the
defective safety design lawyer should remember that a seatbelt
retractor device should keep the driver and passengers in a
vehicle properly restrained during a collision. The
seatbelt retractor should lock the seatbelt and hold the
driver and passengers in place preventing them from hitting
the windshield or other parts of the inside of the vehicle
that could cause serious injury or death. In order
words a proper functioning retractor should not release
excess slack during a collision allowing the occupants to
move and potentially suffer serious or fatal injuries.
Also, sometimes simply the geometry, or
layout, of the seatbelt system is such that it will
necessarily allow occupant excursion during a crash and
render the restraint system ineffective. For a
seatbelt system to be effective, it is important that the
seatbelts work in conjunction with the vehicle's seats and
surrounding structure. If the seatbelt safety restrain
system is not compatible with the interior of the vehicle or
there are other defects in the vehicle including
defective airbags,
defective seats, or a defective roof, the crashworthiness of
the vehicle may be defective and cause drivers or passengers
to be injured or killed due to a combination of vehicle
failures.
Additionally, defective automatic
seatbelt design systems and defective automatic door lock
systems can cause dangers if they release during a
collision. For example an automatic seatbelt and door
lock system can cause restraints to be released and doors to
be opened during a rollover accident. This could cause the
driver and passengers to be thrown around inside the vehicle
or even out of the vehicle.
Automobile Accident Defective Crashworthiness
Product Liability Lawsuits and The Crashworthiness Doctrine
under Texas Law and Federal Law
Defective Automobile Accident Lawsuit
Crashworthiness cases involve claims that a design defect
caused or enhanced the injuries of a vehicle’s occupants
during an automobile crash. To identify a crashworthiness
claim, one must examine the interplay among the
circumstances of the accident, the performance of the
vehicle during the accident, and the injuries suffered. Such
defects may cause a minor injury automobile collision to
become a fatal automobile collision or cause enhanced
injuries by failing to provide suitable protection from
injury or death in foreseeable automobile accidents.
Crashworthiness lawsuits have taken many forms, both in
Texas litigation and throughout state and federal courts.
Under United States Federal the
Crashworthiness Doctrine was developed in the Eighth
Circuit’s opinion in Larsen v. General Motors Corp.
that later helped establish that a manufacturer should be
held liable for failure to provide protection to vehicle
occupants in the event of an automobile collision. The
decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the
Eighth Circuit in Larsen v. General Motors Corporation, 391
F.2d 495 (8th Cir. 1968), is credited with saving many lives
and enunciating the legal doctrine that "[w]hile automobiles
are not made for the purpose of colliding with each other, a
frequent and inevitable contingency of normal automobile use
will result in collisions and injury-producing impacts. No
rational basis exists for limiting recovery to situations
where the defect in design or manufacture was the causative
factor of the accident, as the accident and the resulting
injury, usually caused by the so-called “second collision”
of the passenger with the interior part of the automobile,
all are foreseeable. Where the injuries or enhanced injuries
are due to the manufacturer’s failure to use reasonable care
to avoid subjecting the user of its products to an
unreasonable risk of injury, general negligence principles
should be applicable. The sole function of an automobile is
not just to provide a means of transportation, it is to
provide a means of safe transportation or as safe as is
reasonably possible under the present state of the art. Id.
at 502".
For more information on the Crashworthiness Doctrine,
feel free to go to the following webpage on the
Texas
Defective Crashworthiness Lawsuits.
Automobile Accident Crashworthiness Defective Air Bag
Lawsuits and Fatal Automobile Collision Crashworthiness Defective Air Bag
Lawsuits (Automobile Defective Airbag Product Liability
Lawsuits)
Defective Air Bag Claims may arise out of
serious automobile accidents where a defective air bag was
the cause of death or a catastrophic injury. An air
bag injury may result when an air bag deploys at low impact
or no impact. The defective airbag will deploy at tremendous
force which is necessary to protect passengers from
forward momentum of a high-speed crash. However, if the air
bag deploys At low speed, deployment can snap the head and
neck back severely, resulting in spinal damage, brain injury
and soft tissue damage. Facial lacerations and even broken
bones in the face are also common. Sometimes air bags fail
to deploy when they should, resulting in chest, head, face
and or neck injury as the body is propelled against the
dashboard, windshield or seatback. For more information on
Texas Defective Airbag Lawsuits, please go to the following
web page on Texas
Defective Airbag Lawyer.
Catastrophic Injury
Defective Seat Belt Lawyers, Single Vehicle Accident Lawyers, Deadly Defective Seatbelt
Lawyers, Defective Restraint Design Lawyers, and
Fatal One Automobile Crash Lawyers, and
Catastrophic Injury & Deadly Defective Shoulder Strap
Lawyers (United States and Texas Defective Restrain and
Safety Belt Lawsuits)
As a Texas Defective Seat
Belt Fatal Accident
Lawyer, Jason Coomer, works on Texas Defective Seatbelt Lawsuits
involving serious injuries and fatal automobile collisions all over
the State of Texas and throughout the United States. In working on Texas
Fatal Seatbelt Crash
Law Suits, Jason Coomer commonly works with other Texas
Fatal Defective Seat Belt Rollover
Accident Lawyers throughout Texas and the United States including Houston Fatal
Defective Safety Belt Collision Lawyers, Dallas Fatal Defective
Seat Belt
Rollover Lawyers, El Paso Defective Safety Restraint Fatal
Accident Lawyers, and San Antonio Defective Safety Belt Design
Serious Burn and Death Accident Lawyers.
In working with other
Defective Crashworthiness Automobile Accident Lawyers, he is able to more
efficiently investigate and litigate catastrophic injury and
fatal SUV crash, fatal car wreck, deadly truck collision,
one car accident, and
other deadly vehicle wreck lawsuits that
are caused by defective seatbelts or other defective automobile designs or parts.
Texas Defective Seatbelt Automobile Lawyer, Jason S. Coomer, helps
individuals that have been seriously injured and the
families of people that have been killed as a result of
defective seat belts, defective safety belts, defective
shoulder straps, defective safety restraining systems,
defective air bags, defective rollover design, defective
roof design, defective safety restraint design, defective
steering column design, or other a defective crashworthiness automobile
design or part.
If you have a question about a defective seat belt or safety
belt automobile lawsuit, feel free to
contact Austin Texas Defective Safety Belt and Seat Belt
Fatal Accident lawyer Jason Coomer.
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