When we first lease or buy vehicles, we want to be able to trust that all of the essential safety equipment and systems have been safety tested and that they will work as required in the event of a collision or disaster. Unfortunately, however, the reality is that defective vehicle equipment can and does make it to market, and when it does, it commonly results in car accidents, injuries and fatalities.
If you have been hurt in any type of car accident and are ready to receive more specific info about your best options for financial recovery, don’t hesitate to contact the Littleton car accident attorneys at Bahr and Kreidle. We are here for you and are ready to fight for your rights to justice and compensation after car accidents.
In fact, since 1966 when the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) became the governing authority regarding the safety of vehicle equipment, more than 390 million vehicles (including cars, trucks, motorcycles, mopeds, RVs and buses) have been affected by NTHSA recalls due to defective vehicle equipment. Additionally, the NHTSA reports that the following types of defective vehicle equipment have been the focus of these recalls:
In 2009 alone, the NHTSA estimates that more than 30,000 lives in the U.S. were saved as a result of the recalls of defective vehicle equipment.
What may be just as (if not more) shocking the volume of recalls issued for defective vehicle equipment over the past few decades is the fact that some instances of vehicle equipment defects and failures never get reported or tracked, meaning that:
Tragically, many cases of defective vehicle equipment don’t come to regulators or the public’s attention until the equipment has already caused devastating car accidents. This can be due to the facts that automakers may be unaware of the defective vehicle equipment and that they only become aware of it through its malfunctioning in real-word situations.
However, this may also be due to the facts that some automakers do know about the defective vehicle equipment, are trying to save their own costs by hiding the information about the defective vehicle equipment and end up having to face the music when this equipment causes accidents.
This can be a little-known fact about defective vehicle equipment, but it is nonetheless true. When vehicle owners have been made aware that their vehicles have defective equipment that needs to be replaced, the automaker should cover the costs of the necessary repairs. In some cases, automakers may have relationships with dealers that require the dealers to cover these recall repair costs. Regardless, however, vehicle owners should not have to pay for these repair expenses out of pocket.
If car owners who are trying to get their defective vehicle equipment repaired end up battling repair shops to cover the costs of these repairs, the owners are encouraged to contact the automaker directly to find out more about their options for financial recovery.
Tragically, automakers are not always as responsive as they should be when it comes to reporting defective vehicle equipment and issuing the necessary recalls to get this equipment off of the market.
For instance, take the faulty GM ignition switches that were the center of heated controversy earlier this year. As federal investigators looked into what GM knew about the faulty ignition switches and when they knew it, these investigators ended up finding evidence that GM executives were aware of this defective vehicle equipment as long as a decade ago and yet failed to warn the public about it or take any action to mitigate the potential life-threatening impacts this faulty equipment could have.
This is a very important fact for people to know about defective vehicle equipment and car accidents. When any vehicle equipment fails to work as it should and defective vehicle equipment causes car accidents, the people injured in these collisions:
In fact, if people injured in traffic wrecks caused by defective vehicle equipment do end up pursuing legal action against the negligent automaker(s), they may end up in a large class-action lawsuit, as these types of cases tend to involve a lot of plaintiffs (i.e., defective vehicle equipment can lead to a lot of similar claims against automakers).
Of all of the facts we’ve pointed out about defective vehicle equipment in this blog series, this is the most important fact for people to remember if defective equipment causes them to get hurt in car accidents.
Do you believe that defective vehicle equipment may have contributed to your recent car accident? If so, the Littleton car accident attorneys at Bahr and Kreidle are ready to fight for your rights.
To get more information about your potential case and how we can help you, contact us today to set up a free, no obligations initial consultation. To set up a meeting, call us at (303) 794-7422 or email us using the form on this page.
