Product Liability Law Blog

Toyota is issuing yet another recall related the problem of sudden unintended acceleration. This latest one affects 2.1 million autos in the US over ill-fitting floor mats that might entrap the gas pedal.

Recalled vehicles include approximately:

• 20,000 Model Year GS 300 and GS 350 All-Wheel Drive vehicles (2006, 2007)


• 603,000 4Runners (2003-2009 models)


• 397,000 Highlander and Highlander HV vehicles (2004-2006 models)


• 17,000 2011 Lexus LX 570 autos (2008-2011)


• 372,000 RX 400h, RX330, and RX350 vehicles (2004-2006 and 2007 models)


• 761,000 RAV4 vehicles (2006-2010)

This recalls bumps the number of motor vehicles that Toyota has recalled globally to over 14 million in less than 18 months. However, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it is now closing its probe into the automaker's pedal entrapment problem.

It was just earlier this month that the US Department of Transportation announced the findings of a 10-month study conducted with the help of NASA engineers into possible electronic problems that may have caused the hundreds of sudden unintended acceleration accidents that consumers have reported. NHTSA is now saying that electronic flaws do not appear to have played a role in causing Toyota and Lexus vehicles to suddenly accelerate out of control. Instead, it says this problem has been a result of mechanical and human errors.

While these findings offer helpful and important information, this does not mean that you shouldn't explore your options over whether you have grounds for a Toyota sudden intended acceleration case. Already, numerous plaintiffs have filed auto products liability and wrongful death cases.

Toyota recalls 2.1 million vehicles in U.S. over acceleration, The Washington Post, February 24, 2011

U.S. Department of Transportation Releases Results from NHTSA-NASA Study of Unintended Acceleration in Toyota Vehicles, NHTSA, February 8, 2011

Related Web Resources:
Read the NASA Report for the NHTSA's Toyota Unintended Acceleration Investigation (PDF)

Read the NHTSA Report (PDF)

More Blog Posts:
NHTSA Says Electronic Flaws Not Responsible for Toyota Sudden Acceleration Accidents, Product Liability Law Blog, February 9, 2011

Toyota Sudden Acceleration Lawsuit Filed in Missouri Wrongful Death at Carwash, Product Liability Law Blog, January 19, 2011

Toyota Motor Corp. to Pay $32.425M Penalties Over Auto Recalls, Product Liability Law Blog, December 22, 2010

Continue reading "Another 2.1 Toyota Vehicles Recalled Over Sudden Unintended Acceleration Problems" »

Dorel Juvenile Group (DJG) is recalling 794,247 child safety seats over concerns that a harness safety issue could place a child occupant at risk of serious injury during a car accident. If the harness locking and release button doesn't go back to its locked position, the harness might come loose while the child is seated in the DJG car seat.

DJG will be giving consumers a remedy kit that will include a lubricant that can be applied to the harness's center front adjuster so that it doesn't stick. Even before the remedy has been applied, the child safety seat can still be used as long as the lock/release button is completely in the locked position and the harness has been properly adjusted.

Child Safety Seat Lawsuits
With car crashes as the leading cause of child deaths, it is important that young children and infants are seated in child safety and booster seats when riding in motor vehicles. However, as our child injury lawyers have mentioned in the past, it is equally important that these child safety restraint systems are free from defects so that they don't malfunction, potentially allowing or causing a child or baby to sustain serious injuries during a traffic crash.

Unfortunately, there are child safety seats that do not meet even the minimum safety requirements of the National Transportation Safety Board. There is also the issue of inadequate instructions for proper assembly and use.

Our child safety seat lawyers know how to identify the safety issue(s) that may have caused a child safety seat to fail, such as:

• Handle defects
• Faulty shells
• Base separation
• Poor construction
• Harness safety issues
• Inadequate instructions

Over the years, we have successfully represented children and their families with products liability lawsuits against the manufacturers of defective child safety seats.

Consumer Advisory: Dorel Recalling Nearly 800,000 Child Safety Seats For Safety Harness Issue, NHTSA, February 14, 2011

Related Web Resources:
SeatCheck.org

Dorel Juvenile Group

More Product Liability Law Blog Posts:
About 23,000 Britax Child Safety Seats Recalled, Product Liability Law Blog, November 7, 2010

Evenflo Maestro Car Seats Recalled After They Fail "Consumer Reports" Crash Test, Product Liability Law Blog, October 18, 2010

Child Passenger Safety Week: Protecting Your Child with the Proper Child Safety Seat, Product Liability Law Blog, September 22, 2010

Continue reading "794,247 Dorel Juvenile Group Child Safety Seats Recalled by NHTSA Over Safety Harness Issue" »

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Burlington Basket Company are recalling about 500,000 bassinets over concerns that they pose a fall hazard. The recall comes following 10 reports of incidents involving the bassinets collapsing. Two babies sustained minor injuries as a result.

A fall hazard exists when the bassinet's cross-bracing rails are not fully locked into position. This can cause the bassinets to collapse and the infant may either fall out of or within the infant bed. The CPSC is warning consumers to stop using the recalled bassinets right away. If your child was injured while in a Burlington Basket Company bassinet or because of any other defective, dangerous, or malfunctioning product, contact our child injury law firm immediately.

Recently, the hazards that furniture or other products can pose to sleeping infants and young children has once again been in the media spotlight—a sure indicator that despite the injuries and deaths that have occurred from defective cribs, strollers, bassinets, and baby monitors, some manufacturers are still not doing enough to make sure their products are safe for use.

Last week, our child products liability law firm reported on the recall of 1.7 million Summer Infant video baby monitors following two recent strangulation deaths of babies. Earlier this month, the CPSC issued a warning that "SafetyCraft" portable drop-side and full-size cribs made by Generation 2 Worldwide appear to include the same drop-side hardware found in the Generation 2 Worldwide ChildESIGNS brand drop-side cribs that were recalled a year ago following 20 drop side-linked incidents and three infant suffocation fatalities.

Should this hardware fail, the crib's drop side might detach, which can create an opening that a baby or toddler can get stuck or entrapped in and suffocation or strangulation can occur. CPSC wants consumers to stop using these cribs right way.

According to the journal Pediatrics, almost 10,000 thousand kids a year are injured in cribs, bassinets, and playpens. The CPSC has recalled over 11 million of these products since 2007. 2/3rds of the injuries occurred in fall accidents.

Nearly 10,000 Kids a year injured in cribs, bassinets, and playpens, NPR, February 17, 2011

Recall issued for about 500,000 bassinets, KHOU, February 17, 2011

WARNING: Generation 2 Worldwide "SafetyCraft" Brand Drop-Side Cribs Pose Risks of Strangulation, Suffocation, Hardware Linked to Deaths and Injuries, CPSC, February 3, 2011

Related Web Resources:
Pediatrics

Consumer Reports

Related Blog Posts:
1.7M Summer Infant Video Baby Monitors Recalled Following Two Child Deaths, Product Liability Law Blog, February 12, 2011

Toddler's Parents File Massachusetts Crib Defect Lawsuit Seeking Wrongful Death Damages, Product Liability Law Blog, January 14, 2011

CPSC Bans Drop-Side Cribs and Approves New Crib Safety Standards, Product Liability Law Blog, December 18, 2010

If you will recall, in November, our products liability law firm reported that the Consumer Product Safety Commission had put out a warning for people to be careful when using baby monitors that aren't wireless because the electrical cord can pose a strangulation hazard to kids. Now, following the deaths of two babies from this very cause, the CPSC and Summer Infant are recalling 1.7 million baby monitors so that better instructions can be provided for how to properly use these devices so that children remain safe.

Several deaths have been linked to corded baby monitors, including the death last March of a 10-month old girl who died in a Washington DC strangulation accident involving her Summer Infant's electrical cord. The baby monitor had been placed on top of her crib's rail. In November, the CPSC learned about a 6-month-old who died in a South Carolina strangulation accident that also involved the electrical cord of his Summer Infant monitor. Another boy, 20 months, almost died when his Summer Infant cord ended up around his neck. Now, the CPSC is urging parents and guardians to make sure that the baby monitors are kept far enough away from babies that there is no way they can reach for or get close to the electrical cord.

Even if a product doesn't malfunction or have some design flaw, if it is causing serious injury or death, then it may be a dangerous product that should be recalled. Inadequate operating instructions and warnings can warrant a products liability case if inclusion of better warnings and more complete directions could have prevented an injury or a death from happening.

Over 40 different models of Summer Infant baby monitors, including those with digital, handheld, and color monitors, are included in the recall. Summer Infant is also recalling the rechargeable batteries found in another 58,000 baby video monitors that were sold only at Babies R Us in between 2009 and 2010 because they may cause burn injuries.

Two Strangulation Deaths Prompt Summer Infant to Recall Video Baby Monitors with Cords; Firm to Provide New On-Product Label & Instructions, CPSC, February 11, 2011

Video baby monitors recalled for strangulation hazard, Reuters/Yahoo, February 11, 2011

Related Web Resources:
Summer Infant

Strangulation Hazards, Family Education

Related Blog Posts:
CPSC Warns About Infant Sleep Positioners and Baby Monitor Cords Following Several Deaths, Product Liability Law Blog, November 11, 2010

Strangulation, Choking, and Fall Hazards Prompt Recall of Baby Walkers, Clothing, and Books, Product Liability Law Blog, April 17, 2010

1-Year-Old's Strangulation Death Leads to Recall of 670,000 IKEA Blinds, Product Liability Law Blog, November 21, 2008

Continue reading "1.7M Summer Infant Video Baby Monitors Recalled Following Two Child Deaths" »

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administrations says that a software flaw didn't cause the sudden acceleration accidents involving Toyota vehicles that have resulted in serious injuries and deaths. Instead, floor mat entanglement, sticky gas pedals, and human error appear to have been the main culprits.

The NHTSA issued its findings today following a 10-month study that involved the help of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) engineers. At issue was the role electronic defects might have played in causing the Toyota vehicles to accelerate out of control.

No abnormalities were discovered in the over 280,000 liens of software code that were examined. Data recorders in the vehicles of those who said they experienced sudden acceleration while in a Toyota did not reveal evidence of mechanical error.

The question is, how will the government's findings impact the outcome of the Toyota sudden acceleration lawsuits and wrongful death cases that are still pending? Toyota recalled millions of vehicles over the sudden unintended acceleration problem and the carmaker's reputation, which was built on safety and reliability, has been damaged. With the findings from the NHTSA report now in, it is more important than ever that an auto products liability lawyer that knows how to build a solid injury case represents you. Regardless of whether or not electronic defects caused the sudden unintended acceleration of a Lexus or Toyota, there may still be other auto defects or safety issues that contributed to causing the collision.

According to Safety Research and Strategies Inc., between January 1, 1999 and January 5, 2011 there were 6496 Toyota sudden unintended acceleration incidents. 2483 of these resulted in traffic crashes. 1156 people were injured and 54 others died.

Toyota Sudden Acceleration "Verdict" Is In, CBS News, February 8, 2011

NHTSA report clears up mystery - and hysteria - on Toyota cars, Washington Post, February 8, 2011

NHTSA-NASA Study of Unintended Acceleration in Toyota Vehicles, NHTSA

Related Web Resources:
Toyota Motor Corporation

A Toyota Timeline, The New York Times

Related Blog Stories:
More than 19 Million Autos Recalled in 2010 in About 600 Campaigns, Product Liability Law Blog, December 29, 2010

Toyota Motor Corp. to Pay $32.425M Penalties Over Auto Recalls, Product Liability Law Blog, December 22, 2011

Toyota Settles California Auto Products Liability Lawsuit Over Wrongful Deaths of Family Killed in Sudden Acceleration Lexus Crash, Product Liability Law Blog, September 18, 2010

Continue reading "NHTSA Says Electronic Flaws Not Responsible for Toyota Sudden Acceleration Accidents" »

The U.S. Department of Transportation has issued a new rule aimed at lowering the number of deaths involving passengers ejected from vehicles during rollover accidents. Per the rule, by the Department's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, auto manufacturers have to come up with a countermeasure for light passenger vehicles weighing less than 10,000 pounds that keeps the equivalent from unbelted adults from moving over 4 inches past the side window opening during a traffic crash.

The new standard will start to go into effect in 2013. Beginning model year 2018, all new cars will have to have this protection.

According to NHTSA Administrator David Strickland, rollover accidents are the deadliest type of auto crash. He says the government believes that the new standard will prevent about 476 serious injuries and 373 deaths annually.

Occupant Ejection
A vehicle occupant's chances of dying go up when he/she is partially or completely thrown from an auto during a collision. Chances of the passenger sustaining a serious traumatic brain injury also go up, because often a passenger will end up striking his/her head against the pavement. Occupation ejection is more likely in a rollover crash.

Auto manufacturers are familiar with the type of safety issues that can increase the chances of occupant ejection and it is their job to make sure these problems are addressed so that the chance of a person ending up falling out of a vehicle—usually through one of the windows—is dramatically decreased.

Our SUV rollover crash lawyers know how to prove liability in a car accident involving occupant ejection. A few common causes of occupant ejection:

• Seat belt malfunctions
• Door latch defects
• Roof crush
• Poor quality side window glass

href="http://www.nhtsa.gov/About+NHTSA/Press+Releases/2011/U.S.+Department+of+Transportation+Issues+New+Ejection+Mitigation+Rule" target="_blank">U.S. Department of Transportation Issues New Ejection Mitigation Rule, NHTSA, January 13, 2011

Ejection Mitigation, NHTSA (PDF)

Related Web Resources:
Rollover, PBS

Continue reading "US DOT Issues Rule to Reduce Vehicle Ejections During Rollover Accidents" »