A Defective Seat Belt Can Cause Death or Serious Injuries for Those in An Automobile Accident: Automobile Manufacturers Can Often Be Held Liable For Defective Seat Belts and Defective Safety Restraints That Cause Accident Deaths, Single Vehicle Accident Deaths, and Fatal One Car Crashes by Texas Defective Seat Belt Crash Lawyer and Texas Defective Seat Belt Car Wreck Lawyer Jason S. Coomer  

Texas defective seatbelt crash lawyer and Texas defective seat belt car crash lawyer Jason S. Coomer handles Texas defective seat belt  crash lawsuits and Texas defective airbag crash lawsuits that turn car wrecks and automobile accidents into a fatal automobile crashes, deadly car wrecks, and catastrophic injury crashes.  If you have lost a loved one in a fatal defective seatbelt automobile crash, failed seatbelt restraint car wreck, or other serious defective seat belt vehicle accident, please feel free to submit an inquiry or send an e-mail to Texas Defective Seat Belt Crash Lawyer and Texas Defective Seat Belt Car Wreck Lawyer Jason Coomer. 

A Fatal Car Crash or Automobile Accident Resulting in Catastrophic Inquiries Should Be Investigated To Determine if a Defective Safety Belt, Defective Shoulder Belt, or Other Defective Safety Device Could Have Prevented the Death or Catastrophic Injuries

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.

Categories of Texas Defective Seat Belt Crash Lawsuits Include Texas Defective Safety Belt Latch Crash Lawsuits, Texas Automobile Seat Belt Latch Failure Crash Lawsuits, Texas Automobile Wreck Defective Shoulder Belt Latch Lawsuits and Texas Fatal Automobile Collision Defective Safety Restraint Latch Device Lawsuits

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.

  Texas Catastrophic Injury Defective Seat Belt Lawyers, Texas Defective Safety Belt Single Vehicle Accident Lawyers, Texas Deadly Defective Seat Belt Lawyers, Texas Defective Restraint Design Lawyers, and Texas One Car Crash Driver Death Lawyers

Defective seatbelts 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 crashworthiness product liability lawsuit.

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 Defective Seat Belt Crash Lawyers throughout Texas and the United States including Houston Defective Safety Belt Crash Lawyers, Dallas Defective Seat Belt Car Wreck Lawyers, El Paso Defective Seat Belt Crash Lawyers, and San Antonio Defective Safety Belt Accident Death 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 Seat Belt Car Crash 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 Seat Belt Car Crash Lawyer Jason Coomer.