Three of the Deadliest Car Defects

In the United States, driving to get to our destination is just a normal part of daily life. However, most drivers do not consider the dangers of driving. Whether it is a small “fender bender”, major accident, or caused by a vehicle defect. Car defects are much more common than most people think, and manufacturers tend to keep it that way. The faulty pieces and dangerous designs hidden by manufactures can turn into ticking time bombs lurking in “safe” vehicles. Every day there are serious car accidents, either caused by defects or not, that result in massive medical bills, injury, and fatalities. Some of the following deaths caused by defects were highly publicized, but most of them were purposefully kept quiet. In many cases, several years went by before those who lost loved ones discovered it was a defect that caused the accident. 

Car Defect #1 – Firestone Tires 

In the 1990’s, the NHTSA received over 3,500 reports about defective tires. The reports indicated that the tires were experiencing detrimental tread separation and sudden, deadly blowouts. The tires involved were the P235/75R15 ATX and ATX II tires and P233/70R16 Wilderness AT tires. These tires were installed as OEM equipment on the Ford Explorer, Ford, Bronco, Ford Ranger, and other models. Three months after the NHTSA started to investigate the incident, Ford began recalling their vehicles oversees. Firestone soon followed suite by recalling 14.4 million of their faulty tires in the U.S. Unfortunately, this did not prevent 271 deaths and over 700 injuries that already occurred because of the faulty tires. There are claims that engineers at the Decatur, Illinois, plant knew there were safety concerns with the tires long before they were installed on the vehicles.  

Car Defect #2 – Toyota’s Sudden Acceleration 

In the beginning of the 2000’s, there were many reports of Toyota vehicles spontaneously accelerating leaving the drivers unable to stop or slow down. Because of this issue, Toyota recalled 5.2 million of their vehicles claiming the floor mats were the cause of the acceleration. However, the acceleration issues still remained which forced Toyota to recall 2.3 million more vehicles. This time blaming a “sticky” floor pedal for the cause of the unintended acceleration. Later in 2009 and 2010, Toyota recalled nearly eight million vehicles are part of the sticky pedal recall. Unfortunately, this defect claimed 89 lives and proved that Toyota could’ve acted sooner. Toyota was subsequently charged with the max penalty, $16.4 million for misleading consumers and continuing to manufacture vehicles with knowledge of the issue.  

Car Defect #3 – Ford Bronco II 

One of Ford’s legendary 4×4 vehicles, the Bronco II, has experienced quite the history of severe issues. Like the full-size Bronco, the Ford Bronco II was a compact version just as tough as the original. Before the Bronco II hit the market, Ford allegedly knew about a severe issue with the vehicle. The vehicle would tip onto two wheels and rollover going as slow as 20 miles per hour. The issue, however, was overlooked by Ford and the Bronco II hit the market anyway. Between 1983 and 2001, 3,826 people died in Bronco II related rollover accidents. The problem itself lies in the faulty design of the Bronco II and Ford’s oversight to fix the Defect. In 1990, Ford discontinues the Bronco II and replaced it with the Ford Explore. There are many reports claiming Ford did nothing to fix the issue.  

National Personal Injury Attorneys 

Car defects can be deadly if left untreated. The Personal Injury team at McCune Law Group has built a reputation for successfully taking on the most challenging and serious car accident cases, winning numerous multimillion-dollar settlements and verdicts in the process, including an $11 million car accident settlement and a $5.5 million recovery in connection with a van rollover accident. Let an experienced auto defect attorney from McCune Law Group handle your personal injury case.