Although There Has Been Much Bad News in the Press Concerning Safety of Automobiles, the Good News Is That Traffic Deaths Have Decreased As Automakers Strive To Make Safer Vehicles
Despite the fact that Toyota is all over the headlines lately with noted auto product defects concerning sudden unintended acceleration, there is light at the end of the tunnel. As an experienced automotive product liability lawyer for over 30 years, I can recall that in 1978 a design flaw caused gas tanks to explode on Ford Pintos when they were in rear-end collisions killing 27 people. An internal Ford memo showed that Ford execs had weighed the cost of recalls ($129 million dollars against estimated lawsuits of $50 million dollars). Under pressure from NHTSA and Ralph Nadar, Ford recalled 1.5 million Pintos in 1978 and the brand was scrapped in 1980.
Fast forward to the year 2000 with the Ford Firestone debacle where tread separation on some lines of tires caused many Ford Explorers to roll over with a reported 250 deaths and over 3,000 catastrophic injuries. Ford and Firestone engaged in an ugly public feud over who was to blame. The response was that Firestone recalled all 6.5 million of its tires on the road and all but 200,000 were brought in and replaced for free. In 2001 Firestone cut ties with Ford, recaptured market share and turned a profit in two years.
Interestingly enough, fewer people died in car crashes in 2009 than any year since 1954. As an experienced catastrophic injury lawyer with a practice concentrating on automotive product liability, I am proud to say that many of my legal brethren who have devoted their efforts to the arena of automotive safety have acted as an impetus forcing automobile manufacturers to improve the design and safety of their vehicles with technology, holding them accountable for the defective manufacture or design of a product.
Over the last 30 years we have witnessed automobile manufacturers utilizing stronger roofs, electronic stability control, glazed glass, ADS braking systems, new collision warning systems, expanded seat belt usage with safer seat belts, safer seat back designs, as well as an additional combination of industry innovation and increased federal and state regulation with more teeth.
Although Toyota is the Pinto or Firestone story of 2010, I have no doubt that the resulting attention and diligence spotlighted on this matter will also result ultimately in the manufacture of a safer motor vehicle benchmarked against tighter safeguards. The law firm of Reiff & Bily is committed to promoting automotive safety and limits its practice solely to the representation of consumers injured by defectively designed and manufactured products.
