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Defective Tire Rollover Lawsuits,
Fatal Defective Tire Blow Out Lawsuits, Deadly Defective
Tire Tread
Lawsuits, Defective Automobile Roof Design Lawsuits, and
Fatal Automobile Accident Rollover Lawsuits
by Defective Tire Rollover Automobile Crash
Lawyer Jason S. Coomer
Defective
tire blow out automobile product liability lawsuits include defective
tire blowout lawsuits, defective tire rollover lawsuits,
tire defect rollover
lawsuits,
tire defect blowout lawsuits, defective tread lawsuits, defective tire
tread lawsuits, and defective rollover design
lawsuits. Unfortunately, tire defects can cause
blowout rollover accidents that can often be deadly and kill
vehicle occupants including drivers and passengers.
If you have
lost a loved one in a fatal tire blow out automobile
rollover collision or have
been injured by a tire defect automobile crash, feel free to
submit an
inquiry or
send an e-mail to Texas
Defective Tire Blowout Accident lawyer Jason Coomer.
Fatal Rollover Crash Defective Design Lawsuits,
Catastrophic Injury Defective Design Rollover Lawsuits,
Fatal Roof Collapse Defective Design Lawsuits, Catastrophic
Injury Defective Roof Design Lawsuits, and Automobile
Accident Collapsed Roof Lawsuits (Product Liability
Defective Design Roof Collapse Lawsuits)
Vehicle and Tire Manufacturers have known for decades that
defective tires and tread defects can cause a blow out that
can result in a deadly crash or a fatal roll over accident.
This is especially true in the summer months when paved
roads, streets, and highways can become extremely hot.
Tire defect lawsuits are a special
subgroup of automotive products liability lawsuits and fatal
rollover accident lawsuits. This is because tire defect blow
out lawsuits provide an independent product liability cause
of action against the tire manufacturer as well as tire
replacement centers. But, if the defective tires are
original equipment on a vehicle, a fatal or deadly tire blow
out lawsuit may also create a viable defective blowout
lawsuit against the vehicle manufacturer. The Ford/Firestone
litigation of a few years back brought the issue of tire
defects into the forefront of public knowledge. Until then,
people did not know a tire could just fail and blow out in
the normal course of use.
The Ford/Firestone litigation was based
on claims of design defects in the Firestone tires. The
majority of tire cases before and after the Ford/Firestone
litigation are based on claims of manufacturing and design
defects that caused catastrophic injury and fatal blow out
tire rollover accidents. A tire defect, oftentimes referred
to as a tire delamination or tire detread, usually involves
the bottom layer of steel belts separating from the second
layer of steel belts and outside tread sometimes causing the
defective tire to come apart and blowout. When this
delamination or detreading occurs it is common to find a
large strip of tread, and sometimes accompanying smaller
pieces, separating from the tire while in use. This
separation will often identify a tire delamination.
A delamination will significantly
decrease a person’s ability to control the vehicle and will
sometimes result in an accident. It is common for people to
refer to these tire events as “blowouts.” A blowout is a
sudden loss in air pressure. A tire delamination does not
necessarily entail the loss of air pressure. Sometimes the
tire will lose the tread but retain its air pressure through
the entire accident sequence.
After a blowout or other fatal tire
defect accident it is important to investigate the tires and
their condition to determine if a tire defect, delamination,
or detread was the cause of action accident or rollover. Are
there large pieces of treads missing? Do the tires have air
pressure or will they still hold air? How are old the tires
(determined by the DOT number)? The tire and all tread
pieces should be quickly secured and stored in a climate
controlled area.
Also in investigating a catastrophic
injury or deadly tire defect accident, it is important to
speak with the occupants of the vehicle and any potential
witness to determine if a blow out or tire detread occurred.
A classic scenario in a tire delamination is testimony from
passengers in the vehicle that a loud banging or slapping
noise in the wheel-well of the tire that failed occurred
immediately before losing control of the vehicle. This
indicates that the tread was coming off and hitting the
wheel well as the tire rotated. Also, in investigating a
defective tire crash it is important to ask the occupants
about how the car felt and acted during and after the tire
event.
In addition to the products claim against
the tire manufacturer, the prudent defective tire blow out
accident lawyer should also investigate the possibility of a
negligence claim against the entities that maintained or
installed the tire. The negligence claim can stem from an
improper tire size, rim size or tire/rim combination. It can
also be based on an entity’s failure to inform a customer of
signs of impending failure of a tire. Tire cases are
uniquely technical in terms of the chemistry and other
science involved. These are expert intensive cases. Only an
expert will be able to make a proper determination on why,
and if, the tire failed. It is therefore important to
have the vehicle and tire to examine, speak to all important
witnesses, as well as obtain a complete vehicle history when
investigating a defective tire blow out or detread accident
lawsuit.
Investigating Fatal
Tire Defect Collisions, Deadly Tire Blow Out Crashes, and
Commercial Vehicle Crashes Typically Requires Preservation
of Evidence and Discovery Requests for Important Records
Investigating a deadly crash, fatal collision, catastrophic
injury car wreck, truck collision, or commercial vehicle
accident usually requires preserving evidence and seeking
records from the police, wreckage yard, black box experts,
trucking company, defendant driver, truck driver, and
insurance company to determine what caused the accident.
For more information on preservation of evidence and
obtaining important records & evidence relating to a fatal,
catastrophic injury, defective airbag, or truck collision,
please go to the following web page
Accident Investigation web page.
Additionally, automobile and car wrecks that kill people
including fatal crashes and deadly impact collisions
commonly require a lawyer that is familiar in handling
wrongful death lawsuits and survival action lawsuits.
In thoroughly investigating the death of a loved one,
it is important to understand the potential different types
of compensation that can be obtained through the Texas legal
system and insurance policies. Under Texas law there are
two main types of death actions, there is the wrongful death
claim that is available to the spouse, parents, and children
of a person that has been wrongfully killed by the negligent
actions of another. There is also a survival action that
passes through the decedent's estate and allows the heirs or
beneficiaries of a decedent to seek compensation. The
Wrongful Death Lawsuit seeks money compensation for the
parents, spouse and children of the decedent based on a
variety of factors including:
- Loss of love, companionship, comfort, assistance,
protection, affection or care
- Loss of financial support
- Lost benefits, such as insurance, from the death
- Loss of inheritance from an untimely death
The survival action lawsuit are claims for what the decedent
would have recovered had the person survived the accident.
These claims travel through the decedent's estate and either
go to their heirs or beneficiaries depending if the person
had done any estate planning. These damages include:
- Expenses associated with the death
including funeral costs
- Medical expenses prior to the death
- Pain and suffering associated with the untimely death
Feel free to go to the following web page
for more information on
investigating and pursuing fatal and deadly crash lawsuits.
Fatal Rollover Crash Defective Design Lawsuits,
Catastrophic Injury Defective Design Rollover Lawsuits,
Fatal Roof Collapse Defective Design Lawsuits, Catastrophic
Injury Defective Roof Design Lawsuits, and Automobile
Accident Collapsed Roof Lawsuits (Product Liability
Defective Design Roof Collapse Lawsuits)
Manufacturers have known for decades that
vehicles roll over in reasonably foreseeable accidents. With
the rise in popularity of SUVs and pick-up trucks, the
number of people who are susceptible to vehicles rolling
over has increased significantly over the last 20 years.
However, in light of the fact that more people are affected
by rollovers, most vehicle manufacturers have not increased
the strength of the roofs in their SUVs and pick-ups.
Roof crush, or “loss of occupant survival
space,” creates many problems for occupants in the vehicle.
First, it rapidly reduces the space in the vehicle for the
occupant. This will increase the risk that the occupant will
receive a spinal cord compression injury. Second, roof
deformation does not happen straight down but rather down
and in toward the occupant. This significantly increases the
likelihood that a properly belted occupant will be partially
ejected out of the vehicle during the roll sequence.
Typically the force of the roll coupled with the glass
shattering out of the window, the roof crushing down and
inward and the seatbelt not properly securing the occupant
to the seat will result in the occupant having his or her
head and/or arm and shoulder out of the vehicle during the
roll. As will be discussed below, there are other ways to
keep an occupant in the vehicle during a roll but a roof
that stays in place during a roll reduces the risk of a
person being partially ejected or receiving a compression
injury even without the other safety measures.
The most common injuries associated with
roof crush are spinal cord compression injuries and death.
Many automobile manufacturers have taken the position,
especially in spinal cord compression injury cases, that the
injury was caused by the occupant “diving” into the roof.
The term “diving” comes from the analogy of swimming pool
diving injuries to compression injuries sustained in
rollovers. With this defense, the automobile manufacturers
maintain the injury occurs before the roof crushes in by the
head moving toward the roof until it can go no further and
the weight of the occupant’s body moving toward the head
until there is such loading on the neck that a spinal injury
occurs. Vehicle manufactures allege through testing and
expert testimony that when a vehicle is inverted, the forces
of gravity and the roll sequence will lead to an occupants
head contacting the roof without any roof crush. They allege
that there is no alternative roof design that can stop this
from happening.
Partial ejections are also common in
rollover accidents because the roof crushes down and in
toward the occupant. When the roof crushes down and in, the
force of the roll causes the occupant’s head to get outside
the plane of the vehicle. In a partial ejection, it is
common for an occupant to hit his or her head against the
ground or pavement or get it caught between the car and
ground during the roll. Vehicle manufacturers often argue
that no matter the strength of the roof, a belted occupant
can get their head out of the car during a roll. But if you
keep the roof from deforming more than 3 inches during a
rollover, restrained and contained occupants cannot get
their heads out of the plane of the vehicle and sustain a
catastrophic injury. The most important series of tests that
address the causal relationship between occupant injuries
and roof deformation are Malibu I and Malibu II. These were
dolly rollover tests performed with Chevrolet Malibus (some
with production roofs and others with reinforced roofs that
did not deform during the rollovers). The vehicles were
equipped with Hybrid III test dummies (in Malibu I the
dummies were unrestrained and in Malibu II the dummies were
properly belted). Vehicle manufacturers use the Malibu tests
to argue the roof crush does not actually cause the injury.
The test data demonstrates, however, that
there is a causative relationship between the strength of
the roof and significant neck loading. Analysis of the
Malibu testing and other testing that has been performed by
the automotive industry and others is beyond the scope of
this paper, but it is important for anybody handling a roof
crush case to be well-versed in all of this testing. When
analyzing a roof crush case, it is important to analyze the
extent of the roof deformation. This will require
measurements that can be done by a trained attorney or
investigator. Further, as discussed above, the accident
reconstruction will provide much information that will allow
an analysis of a roof crush case. Trip speed, roll velocity,
number of rolls, drop height and the type of roll (barrel,
end over end or football) are all needed to analyze whether
or not a safer alternative design existed that would have
kept the occupant compartment space preserved during the
roll.
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.
For more about the Crashworthiness
Doctrine, please go to the following web page with
information on the
United States Federal and Texas Crashworthiness Doctrine.
United States and Texas Catastrophic Injury and
Fatal Tire Defect Crash Lawyers and Deadly Defective
Tire Blowout Lawyers (Product Liability
Defective Tire Blowout Lawsuits)
As a Texas Defective
Tire Blowout Fatal Accident
Lawyer, Jason Coomer, works on Texas Fatal Rollover and
Defective Tire Lawsuits
involving serious injuries and fatal automobile collisions all over
the State of Texas and throughout the United States. In working on Texas
Tire Defect Blowout Accident
Law Suits, Jason Coomer commonly works with other Texas
Fatal Defective Tire Blowout
Accident Lawyers throughout Texas and the United States including Houston Fatal
Defective Tire Detread
Accident Lawyers, Dallas Fatal Tire Defect Roof Collapse
Rollover Lawyers, El Paso Defective Tire Tread Crash Lawyers, and San Antonio Defective
Tire Blowout Accident Lawyers. In working with other
Defective Tire Blow Out Automobile Accident Lawyers, he is able to more
efficiently investigate and litigate catastrophic injury and
fatal automobile crash and deadly car wreck lawsuits that
are caused by defective automobile design or parts.
Texas Defective Tire Blow Out 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 tires, defective treads, defective rollover design, defective
roof design, and other a unsafe vehicle crash lawsuits.
If you have a question about a defective air bag or
defective automobile claims,
contact Austin Texas Defective
Tire Blowout Fatal Crash lawyer Jason Coomer.
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