Defective vehicles cause a significant number of collisions each year. When an accident is the result of an automotive defect or malfunction, it often causes serious injuries and significant damages. Product liability lawsuits allow consumers to hold the manufacturers, sellers, and designers of faulty vehicles accountable for the damages caused by automotive defects. To successfully litigate against an auto manufacturer, attorneys must have considerable experience and resources. That’s where we come in.
What Common Automotive Defects Can Contribute to Collisions?

Vehicle safety systems unquestionably help save lives and reduce the severity of injuries in automotive collisions. These safety systems, however, can malfunction, fail to perform as expected, and pose safety risks of their own.

• Airbag Failure: New cars sold in the U.S. must have dual front airbags (for the driver and front-seat passenger). Side airbags are common but not required by law. Defects in the design or manufacture of components can lead to airbag non-deployment, exposing the driver and front passenger to additional danger in a collision.
• Airbag-Caused Injuries: Because of the speed and force with which airbags deploy, they can directly cause injuries. These include cuts, abrasions, eye injuries, hearing loss, and more. They also pose a smothering risk to children and small adults.
• Seatbelt Defects: New vehicles must be equipped with three-point (shoulder and lap belt) seatbelt systems for each seating position; older vehicles must comply with the version of the law in effect when they were manufactured. Drivers and passengers rely on seatbelts to help keep them safe and reduce their chances of serious injury in a collision. A seatbelt can expose a rider to additional danger if it does not function as intended due to a design flaw or defect.
• Seatback Failures: Sometimes, a rear impact crash can cause the front seats to fall backward. This can crush or catastrophically injure a backseat passenger. Accidents involving seatback failures are especially dangerous for children riding in car seats. A manufacturer may be held liable if the design or manufacture of their seatbacks fails to meet the national safety standard or creates an unreasonably dangerous condition.

Crashworthiness Lawsuits

Crashworthiness is how well a vehicle protects its occupants in a collision. It includes the safety of a vehicle’s design, its safety systems and features, its manufacturing and production quality, and other factors contributing to its overall safety.

A crashworthiness personal injury lawsuit alleges that one of the safety systems that was intended to reduce or minimize injuries within a vehicle during a collision failed or did not perform as advertised. Even if another driver’s negligence caused a collision, an injured person might have a claim against the manufacturer of their own vehicle if it did not reasonably protect them.

For example, a driver is rear-ended by another vehicle traveling at a moderate rate of speed. Their airbag fails to deploy, and they strike their head on the windshield, sustaining a severe concussion. This injury would likely have been avoided if the airbag had deployed correctly per the manufacturer’s specifications and federal requirements. In addition to a claim against the other driver, they may have a crashworthiness personal injury claim against the car manufacturer.

Recalls and Other Manufacturer Warnings

Lawsuits and news reports often help make manufacturers aware of defects or unreasonably dangerous components of their products. Other times, they uncover flaws in a design or faults in the manufacturing process during additional testing or internal development. Regardless of how a manufacturer discovers an issue, if it is likely to cause harm to the public, they usually publish notice of a product recall. This is a notice to the public that a product is “unreasonably dangerous” and may cause unexpected injury to a person using it as intended.
Product recalls are intended to prevent injuries to the public, but they do not absolve a company of liability for a dangerous product. If you have been injured by a recalled automotive product, you may have a product liability claim.

Did an Automotive Defect Cause Your Injuries?

If you have been injured in an auto accident caused by a defective or unreasonably dangerous product, retain an attorney immediately. Car manufacturers have teams of attorneys protecting their interests. You need an experienced opponent who isn’t afraid to fight for your rights and recover the damages you deserve. Contact the Cooper Firm today for a free consultation.

After years of discovery, we learned that GM was selling faulty ignition switches that would, without prompting, switch to the “accessory” position, taking away power steering from the driver. Our legal action against General Motors generated a nationwide response, leading to the recall of 30 million vehicles and the launch of hundreds of lawsuits across the United States.

In 2013, the Meltons reached a settlement with GM for $5 million, a sum that was initially confidential but later made public by GM. However, our commitment to justice didn’t stop there. In the following year, The Cooper Firm reopened the Meltons’ case, uncovering evidence that GM had deceitfully hidden knowledge of the defect, known by one of its engineers. This relentless pursuit of truth and accountability led our firm to represent over 100 individual clients in lawsuits against GM.
Ultimately, GM was compelled to pay a $900 million fine to settle criminal charges related to the concealment of the dangerous ignition switch defect.