Philadelphia Injury Attorney Blog

As an experienced commercial carrier and bus accident lawyer who has been successfully prosecuting claims since 1979, a recent Arizona bus crash that killed 6 and injured 16 is offensively shocking to the conscience due to the fact that investigation reveals that the company had skirted government regulations and amassed a poor safety record and was operating off the books. According to investigative sources, the company never had Federal authorization required to transport passengers over state lines. The company skillfully skirted regulations designed to insure that bus companies adequately maintained vehicles as well as test drivers for drug and alcohol abuse. U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said “It is absolutely essential that unsafe common carriers like this be taken off the road."

Federal officials and court documents suggest that the owners of the bus knew that they were conducting business without federal operating authority due to the fact that the company applied for official authorization in April 2009 but never replied to a request for more information. As a result, the government denied the application and sent a certified letter to the bus operators informing them in bold face print that they were not authorized to engage in interstate transportation of passengers by commercial motorized vehicles. The operators of this bus, according to sources, have shown a persistent determination to continue operating under new entities and they have been repeatedly rebuked by transportation officials in their attempts to skirt the law and regulations.

In August 2009, the bus was declared “out of service" after inspectors determined serious maintenance issues and faulty emergency exits, as well as a checkered history of maintaining insurance coverage. This accident represents a senseless loss of life and calls attention to the need to enforce common carriers and bus companies with strict regulations that have teeth in them.

In this experienced catastrophic injury attorney’s opinion, this event is tantamount to vehicular homicide and I feel that all of the operators and parties should be charged accordingly.

According to a story published on March 4, 2010 in The New York Times, studies reveal that in some cases metal on metal hip implants can quickly begin to wear, generating metallic debris with deleterious effects. Some of the nation’s leading orthopedic surgeons have reduced or stopped the use of a popular category of artificial hips amid concerns that devices are causing severe tissue and bone damage in some patients, often requiring surgery within a year or two.

The device is known as a metal on metal implant and has been used in approximately one third of the 250,000 hip replacements performed annually in America. According to the study, the cause and scope of the problem is not clear but seems to indicate that in some cases the devices can quickly begin to wear, generating high volumes of metallic debris that is absorbed into the patient’s body which can touch off inflammatory reactions causing groin pain, death of tissue in the hip joint, and loss of surrounding bone. Many surgeons are concerned that they may only now be seeing the leading edge of a mounting problem.

The experienced Philadelphia medical malpractice and product liability lawyers at Reiff & Bily are well versed in the investigation and prosecution of defective implant cases resulting in injury or death and will continue to monitor and investigate the concerning issues arising from metal on metal hip implants.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood stated that NHTSA is considering making brake override systems mandatory for all cars going forward as a way of coping with unintended sudden acceleration. We are now learning that many of the fixes by Toyota do not seem to be working and cars are still accelerating suddenly after the problem has allegedly been addressed in dealerships. Toyota has been inserting a shim to repair a Toyota accelerator pedal affected by the recall. The brake override system suggested would inform the engine that if the brake is depressed after accelerating in rapid fashion, such as an emergency or panic situation, that engine power should be reduced. Toyota is putting just such a system in many of the cars it sells in the U.S. starting in the spring. It is also offering to retrofit some models on the road now if the owner wants it done when they bring the car to the dealer for repair under the jammed floor mat recall. Brake override systems would only be added to certain vehicles with electronic throttles and Transportation Secretary LaHood made it clear that the order for implementing them would affect all automakers and not just Toyota.

A sudden acceleration syndrome is something that has affected all of the car manufacturers at one time or another for many years and is not just limited to Toyota. As an experienced automobile product liability lawyer, I have seen this problem on many of the other automobile manufacturers’ cars. Surprisingly, my wife owns a BMW 5 series which apparently accelerated on its own on two separate occasions within the last month and she narrowly escaped injuries to herself and others. When we go to analyze the situation, no trouble codes have been registered or found, yet I am certain that when I was driving the car which was stopped on an uphill grade, the car took off without my foot being on the gas pedal. Unfortunately many of the sudden acceleration problems are difficult to replicate and do not show when the car is connected to a computer for analysis. Many times the situation involves a bad sensor or circuit board which can be affected by elements on the highway or faulty manufacturer design. Specifically, the problem seems to occur when the car decelerates to a stop and the vehicle all of a sudden will buck once or twice with a sudden acceleration of the engines rpms reaching 2,000 to 3,000 rpm. Many times when a sudden acceleration occurs, the brakes do not work quick enough or hard enough to avoid a crash and for the past 10 or 15 years, many courts ruled in favor of the car companies in litigation, blaming the drivers for these accidents. Our law firm has been intimately involved with automotive product defects for many years. We are all too familiar with the manufacturers’ screaming blame game of driver error. As technology continues to advance and mechanical cable throttle is replaced with electronic throttle, software and sensors are involved and as we all know, this apparently is accompanied by technical glitches. Yes, driving by wire technology certainly comes at a cost and the issue here is not really who is to blame but in fact, working together to achieve a satisfactory resolution to this problem so that additional lives are not lost. I believe that the Toyota/Lexus media situation and resulting governmental inquiries and efforts of trial lawyers committed to representing injured consumers will dispel the myth of driver error and perhaps now a little bit of integrity by the manufacturers will be added to the equation.

Recently I have noticed a dramatic increase in the number of inquiries to my website and telephone lines by individuals concerned about the safety of many cars, including Toyotas, that their family members drive. They tell me they are clueless about who to contact for an accurate and timely vehicle recall and ask me whether or not their car is safe to drive.

As an experienced Philadelphia product liability attorney who has been handling auto defect cases since 1979, I have normally received these calls after the fact when there has been a catastrophic injury or fatality as a result of a defectively designed automobile or product. I am flattered that my clients and their friends or relatives seek to call me with regard to my input as to the safety of their vehicle or what to do to prevent an accident. However, what this scenario does in fact seem to indicate is that the message is just not getting to the people and there is a fear factor that seems to be growing among concerned individuals looking to protect their family and precious cargo.

I’ll try to briefly address some suggestions I have on who to contact. With regard to toxic chemicals, product recalls and other problems, The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 1-800-232-4636.

Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) 1-800-638-2772, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (www.nhtsa.gov or www.recalls.gov), an online resource encompassing recalls for consumer products, motor vehicles, boats, foods, medicine, cosmetics, and environmental products.

Of course, you should contact the manufacturer’s website and their consumer relations website if you have more specific problems that are not addressed, and ultimately if your problems are not being addressed and you have sustained a catastrophic injury or wrongful death, please feel free to contact one of our catastrophic injury and wrongful death lawyers for a free no obligation consultation at 1-800-421-9595.

As an experienced vehicle defect lawyer since 1979 specializing in catastrophic injuries and wrongful deaths, I am well aware of the secrecy that many automobile manufacturers go to in order to protect their product by putting profits ahead of consumer safety. In the last few weeks, there have been a number of outstanding revelations and smoking guns revealed in the Toyota crisis.

Lately another smoking gun has surfaced which will greatly undercut Toyota’s polished reputation for attempting to be holier than thou when it comes to disclosing safety issues and fixing potentially dangerous problems. According to this news story, Toyota apparently bargained with U.S. regulators to limit the scope and cost of its recall. Sources report that internal Toyota documents from July 2009 entitled “Wins For Toyota Safety" state that the firm saved 100 million dollars by convincing the NHTSA to limit an accelerator recall to 55,000 Lexus and Camry models. The Wall Street Journal reported that the Toyota document, by linking safety issues to corporate profits, could prompt difficult questions for Toyota company executives, adding to their problems as a result of the 8 million vehicle recall. This memo highlights Toyota’s aggressive efforts to save money rather than recall cars, putting profits ahead of consumer safety.

As an experienced vehicle product liability lawyer, I salute the national and international news media for calling attention to Toyota’s attempts to camouflage or sweep their situation under the carpet. I am now more than ever concerned that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration may also have not such an innocent role in that it agreed to this bargaining arrangement with Toyota when their job was to protect the American people from such behavior and irresponsible actions by Toyota.

Recently two individuals luckily escaped with their lives after their RV burst into flames, taking less than 5 minutes to burn down. The accident happened at Mid-Valley RV Park in Texas when John Dillon and Russell Salinas were taking an RV for a test drive. Dillon stated that when he turned the key on the RV, a fire started in the front. "I saw the flames. I'm not going to jump through that thing, so I'm running," said Dillon. "The flames are coming up...so I'm ducking down. And I remember the very front door. It had a big enough window, so I jump out. And I saw the door handle and flew right out." They jumped into their truck which was parked next to the RV in a race to get away. However, the truck was stuck in mud. The fire also destroyed a second RV. The cause of the fire is currently under investigation.

If you have never seen an RV fire, you probably have no idea how quickly an RV can burn down to its metal frame. Having propane onboard makes this a more likely scenario as it generally indicates that there can be an explosion. Unfortunately, the situation of RV fires is not thought about or discussed very often. However, there are over 20,000 reported RV fires every year. Many of them are caused by transmission or fuel leaks or shorts in the 12 volt electrical system. These fires can escalate very quickly in a confined environment, added to the fact that many of the materials utilized in the construction of the vehicle are extraordinarily flammable and burn rapidly, often resulting in the average RV smoldering to ash on the frame in as little as 10 to 15 minutes.

As an experienced defective trailer lawyer with experience dealing with RV fires, I am extraordinarily concerned by the inadequacy of standards in the recreational vehicle business as many loopholes exist which are not called to attention until it is too late. For more information on this subject I invite you to communicate with Ron Melacon, a consumer advocate and crusader who has spent a long part of his life bringing these issues to the public eye. You can visit his website at www.dangeroustrailers.org.

If you or a loved one has been involved in a defective trailer accident or fire, your case deserves the attention and investigatory efforts of an experienced RV fire and defective trailer lawyer. For a free no obligation consultation, please contact our office at 1-800-421-9595.

I my capacity as a Philadelphia product liability lawyer, I am concerned about the safety and design of a roofing product manufactured and sold by GAF-Elk. The system is a Tru Slate 2.0 roof system designed, manufactured, and sold by Elk Corporation and subsequently acquired by GAF. We recently filed a claim in Federal Court against GAF Materials Corp. d/b/a GAF-Elk. We have alleged that a Tru Slate 2.0 roofing system was installed in a coastal home subject to high winds. GAF-Elk advertises that the Tru Slate system was capable of withstanding high winds and stormy conditions. On repeated occasions, a number of the slate tiles became unfastened and blew off causing damage to neighboring properties. The slate tiles became detached and flew through the air in a “frisbee-like" fashion damaging neighboring properties and with the potential to catastrophically injure and even kill others in its path. The company made repeated efforts to remediate the problem, yet the problem still exists and the owner of the property is unable to find anyone in the local area willing to repair the roof due to the complexity of the system and fears of legal liability. When the company was repeatedly advised about the problem and potential for injury, they attempted to initially remediate a fix, but the system continues to fail sending tiles flying through the air. This situation presents a hazard to the innocent public passersby. We believe that this is another example of putting concern for profits ahead of consumer safety.

If you or a loved one has had a problem with a GAF-Elk Tru Slate Roof System or has been injured by flying shingles or debris or has sustained severe property damage due to defectiveness or alleged defective design of the system, please feel free to contact one of our experienced Philadelphia product liability lawyers for a free consultation and analysis of your case.

Problems for Japanese automakers seem to be mounting with the increasing number of recalls in the past few weeks. Toyota has recalled approximately 8 or 9 million vehicles at this point in time, although I am not quite certain due to the fact that every other day there seems to be another recall notice published.

Recently Honda announced a recall of nearly a million vehicles due to defective airbags and overaggressive airbags that have been linked to catastrophic injuries and at least one fatality. Previously Honda announced a recall in 2008 and the summer of 2009 whereupon it was noted that the airbag inflators were producing too much pressure causing airbags to rupture sending dangerous parts towards the driver during an accident. These airbags are manufactured in the United States by a Honda subcontractor.

I recently resolved a case involving an overaggressive and defective airbag which caused blindness in one of my clients. The automobile manufacturer attempted to argue that it was not their fault and that the driver was simply out of position but we were successful countering this argument due to the fact that the driver was belted in the seat and argued that it is foreseeable during an accident that a driver or passenger can be jostled out of position. Frankly, the argument set forth by the automobile manufacturer was in this experienced airbag defect lawyer’s opinion complete nonsense and a red herring attempting to deflect focus from the more significant problem of the overaggressive airbag defect.

If you or a loved one has been involved in an accident caused by an airbag defect, please contact one of our experienced airbag defect lawyers for a free consultation. Don’t believe everything the manufacturers tell you. Our experience has clearly revealed that many of the manufacturers engage in a campaign of deny, delay and defend claims in their continuing effort to place profits over consumer safety.

As experienced product liability attorneys with over 30 years experience litigating cases against the world’s major automotive manufacturers, we at Reiff & Bily have witnessed first hand the practices used by Toyota and other auto manufacturers to conceal and deny serious design and manufacturing defects in their vehicles, emphasizing profits over consumer safety. Now, after years of foot-dragging, Toyota has finally acknowledged major problems with their vehicles which have placed the drivers in jeopardy many times when they take to the roads.

According to news sources, sudden and unexpected acceleration of Toyota vehicles has killed at least 30 people and seriously injured countless others in the last several years alone. One of our clients was driving on a major highway near Philadelphia when her vehicle suddenly accelerated to over 90 mph and nothing she did was able to slow the vehicle. Her car finally came to a stop when she left the road and drove up a steep embankment. Amazingly, she walked away from this incident with only minor injuries. Others have not been so lucky. In California, 4 people were killed when a new Lexus accelerated to over 100 mph, rolled over, and killed all 4 people in the car. Over 800 other incidents involving sudden, unintended acceleration have been documented in the U.S. alone, while hundreds of similar incidents have killed and injured people around the world. The Problem Is Real!!!

Continue reading " Toyota Dragged Their Feet " »

As an experienced automotive product liability lawyer, my legal brethren and myself who dedicate their practices to automotive product liability and consumer safety have been all too frustrated many times over the past few years when we attempt to download the black boxes from Toyotas and other Japanese auto manufacturers. More so than any other automakers that we litigate against, many of the Japanese automakers have placed roadblocks in our path in making data from black boxes accessible. Yoshimi Inaba, the President of Toyota North America, told a Senate Committee on Tuesday, March 2nd that the company would be delivering three data readers to the National Highway Safety Administration on Wednesday, March 3rd and that the company hoped to make the data more accessible to other systems by the middle of 2011.

Quite frankly as an experienced product liability lawyer who has had vast experience with the downloading of black boxes and the evaluation of data, I am curious why only three data readers are only being made available and why the consumer public and experts must wait until the middle of 2011 to receive more accessibility when citizens lives are knowingly in danger. Once again, it seems that profitability is being stressed over public safety in this game of hide and seek by Toyota. I have always believed that if you are confronted with a problem or safety issue, get the facts out there as soon as possible so other innocent victims are not killed or catastrophically injured.

I for one believe that Toyota is “hiding something" and for a company that prides itself on integrity, they are certainly not doing a great job putting their cards on the table as surveys now reveal that more than half of the people out there are less likely to buy a Toyota. On the positive side for major U.S. automobile manufacturers, sales are up but many analysts claim its at Toyota’s expense. By the way, it is important to note that the black box recording devices utilized on Toyotas are not so dissimilar from black boxes utilized on American cars as common safety features. However, one important aspect is that Toyotas can only be read by Toyota technicians with specialized readers which is not the case with black boxes manufactured by U.S. car companies. As I review the congressional hearings, there is a theatrical ring about it. The answer is quite simple, “... without integrity nothing stands."

You can rest assured that the automotive product liability lawyers at Reiff & Bily and many other fine lawyers committed to the cause around the United States of America will do their best to ferret out the truth in these matters.

At Reiff & Bily in Philadelphia, we have received many telephone calls in the last several days concerning Toyota’s latest recall involving faulty brakes in its best selling Prius. As experienced automotive product liability and catastrophic injury lawyers, we are greatly concerned about this latest problem because properly functioning brakes are perhaps the most important safety feature on any car. In the U.S. alone, Toyota has recalled over 40,000 new Prius and Lexus automobiles manufactured after April 2009, due to problems with the cars’ braking systems. Toyota has announced that there is a problem with their computerized braking system in that there is a delayed reaction from the time the brake pedal is applied until the brakes actually take hold. This problem has the potential to cause severe injuries and even death to the occupants of these brand new vehicles touted to be the most technologically advanced vehicles on the market today.

As experienced product liability attorneys with over 30 years of experience representing catastrophically injured consumers, we take no joy in the troubles that have befallen Toyota, a company that prided itself as a manufacturer of the highest quality vehicles available. Nevertheless, we recognize that this latest problem constitutes a major threat to the health and safety of our clients. If you purchased a Prius or Lexus after April 2009, you should immediately contact your dealer for details on getting this problem fixed.

Continue reading " Toyota’s Newest Problem: Faulty Prius Brakes " »

By now, most people are aware of the recently publicized problems facing owners of Toyota and Lexus vehicles involving sudden unintended acceleration and brake problems. We at Reiff & Bily have recently become aware of new recalls involving 950,000 Honda vehicles involving faulty air bags. Additionally, U.S. regulators are now looking into reports of potential problems involving newer models of Toyota Corollas.

The experienced product liability lawyers of Reiff & Bily have over 30 years of experience representing people who suffered catastrophic injuries or deaths of family members due to defective motor vehicles. As an experienced airbag defect lawyer, I can state that airbags save many lives in car accidents. Recently I obtained a substantial settlement for a young woman who lost her eye due to a faulty airbag.

At Reiff & Bily, we have knowledgeable experts from around the country and we are not afraid to take on the major auto companies. Time after time, we have found that the auto companies put profits ahead of safety.

In a letter from the United States Congress Committee on Oversight and Government Reform sent to Mr. Yoshimi Inaba as part of their investigation into Toyota’s handling of vehicle recalls arising from incidents of sudden acceleration, it was revealed that Toyota deliberately withheld relevant electronic records that it was legally required to produce in rollover litigation. Many of these documents concerned rollover cases where the plaintiff was injured or killed. The letter also goes on to note that Mr. Dimitrious Biller, who is managing counsel of the product liability group of Toyota Motor Sales and in a very senior position in which he lead the defense of some of the largest tort cases against Toyota, particularly rollover cases involving seriously injured victims, did not produce all of the requested documents during the litigation process. Biller was concerned with Toyota’s failure to produce electronic documents in litigation. The documents also indicate that Mr. Biller was concerned that Toyota’s interactions with NHTSA would be discovered. Finally the Biller documents shined light on Toyota’s handling of the sudden, unintended acceleration problem.

In summary, the Biller documents and Toyota documents indicate a systematic disregard for the law and a routine violation of court discovery orders in litigation. People injured in crashes involving Toyota vehicles may have been injured a second time when Toyota failed to produce relevant evidence to the court. This also raises very serious questions as to whether Toyota has withheld substantial relevant information from NHTSA.

As experienced product liability lawyers, we have been well aware of Toyota's posturing for many years and their refusal to play fair in the litigation process. We are currently investigating a number of Toyota airbag and sudden acceleration claims.

As an experienced defective airbag attorney, I have had a number of occasions to download the black boxes of many automobiles with a technical expert. The black box is essentially an event data recorder and is a small square box tucked safely away in an inconspicuous position either under the dash or under the front seat of most vehicles. The black box is supposed to record engine speeds, brake acceleration, throttle positions, airbag data, and other information to determine the cause of an accident.

Recently, I participated in a black box download with an expert of one of the Japanese automakers and had difficulty with the manufacturer accessing the black box data due to the fact that the Japanese manufacturer told us that the information contained therein was proprietary and that only their experts could review the information. This attempted roadblock necessitated extensive legal maneuvering and court sanctions to get the correct black box information available for review by our expert.

Recently a Wall Street Journal article addressed this similar issue. Other plaintiffs’ lawyers and clients in auto accident cases note that they have also butted heads with Toyota over access to its black box data. The article noted by contrast that three major Detroit automakers have a black box format that can be read without the involvement of the auto manufacturer using a commercially available tool. In our specific case, the Japanese manufacturer and their lawyers fought at every step and turn to avoid our retrieving the correct black box download data. Our experienced airbag defect lawyers were ultimately successful in the prosecution of our claim involving this overaggressive deployment of an airbag.

Using the Li’l Abner “any plain fool can see" theory, my own gut instinct told me that if there was anything helpful to the automobile manufacturer in their legal process, the same would have clearly been provided. However, if the information was detrimental to a case against them, they would not provide it without a strong and determined fight. Adversity causes some lawyers to break and others to fight harder and break records.

As automobile manufacturer Toyota has profitability in the billions, recent recalls and their failure to act sooner to issue recalls indicate that they have emphasized profits over consumer safety. Recently Toyota announced a massive recall due to faulty acceleration. However, it has now also surfaced that officials in the United States and Japan are looking into additional complaints regarding a brake system which has also failed.

As an experienced Philadelphia vehicle defect lawyer, I have been aware of defect problems with Toyotas for many years and feel that Toyota has been less than forthcoming about problems with their cars putting its customers at risk for substantial injuries or death. Unfortunately in many past legal cases Toyota was adamant about having litigants sign confidentiality agreements in an attempt to put a hamper on negative publicity concerning their product.

The Philadelphia vehicle defect and product liability law firm of Reiff & Bily has a successful track record representing individuals who are harmed or killed due to dangerous defective products with a focus on the automotive industry. Consumers have a right to expect that when they purchase an automobile it is safe.

If you or a loved one has suffered catastrophic injuries or death resulting from the use of a Toyota, please contact one of our experienced Philadelphia car accident and vehicle defect lawyers for a free, no obligation consultation at 1-800-421-9595 or online at www.reiffandbily.com. Reiff & Bily has been committed to consumer safety since 1979.