A federal district court in southern Florida will hear a products liability class action lawsuit involving a major airbag maker. U.S. District Judge Frederico Moreno has been chosen to preside over the case. This is just one of more than 70 potential class action lawsuits that have grown out of the recent stories that airbags from a major airbag manufacturer explode with too much force causing serious injuries and possibly deaths. The class action lawsuit being heard by the Florida court will involve claims that the allegedly faulty airbags cause a loss in resale for car owners.
Stories Involving the Products Liability of Faulty Airbags
- Honda is recalling more than 5 million cars for the faulty airbags at issue. Among the vehicles in the recall are Pilots, Civics, and Accords. Honda is just one of nine car companies to recall their vehicles for problems with the airbags made by the company at issue. According to reports, when some of Honda's airbags have triggered they explode with too much force, causing small metal parts to fly into the faces of accident victims.
- Federal regulators from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are getting involved with the faulty airbags. Regulators are ordering that the company who makes the airbags preserve evidence like air bag inflators to be used in potential litigation. In addition to these steps, the NHTSA is performing an engineering analysis on the airbags, which is a formal step in the investigation for the NHTSA. In addition, the NHTSA is fining the company $14,000 a day until the company begins to fully cooperate with the agency in its efforts to fix the airbag problems.
- As recently as January there was a report that a faulty airbag may have killed a driver. The report is out of Houston, and involved a 2002 model Honda Accord. Even though the accident was minor, and the passenger suffered little injury, the driver was found dead after the accident.
- Prior to the most recently reported accident, there are at least 30 people that have been injured due to the faulty airbags.
Florida Products Liability Law
The state of Florida has passed laws protecting consumers from defective products. If a product presents a danger to the consumer because of how it was designed, manufactured, constructed, formed, installed, prepared, or assembled, then the consumer has a right to recover any damages they suffered as a result. A victim of a faulty product is generally able to sue everyone in the chain of commerce. That means that a victim could sue the company that manufactured the product; the company that shipped the product; or, the company that sold the product to the consumer.
Reach Out to an Attorney
If you have been affected by a faulty airbag, or by any other faulty product, The Pittman Firm is here to represent you. Wes Pittman is focused on fighting to see that victims of faulty products are appropriately compensated for the pain and suffering they experience because of faulty products.