What Is a Defective Car?
A defective vehicle is one that fails to meet crashworthiness standards due to a design or manufacturing flaw. Crashworthiness refers to a vehicle’s ability to protect occupants during a collision.
What Does It Mean for a Car to Be Crashworthy?
Because accidents are foreseeable, vehicle manufacturers have a legal duty to design and build crashworthy vehicles. That means cars need to be safe enough to prevent injuries and deaths during a collision.
A crashworthy vehicle is designed and built to minimize and distribute the force inside the vehicle to mitigate the occupant’s injuries.
Which Parts of a Car Have to Be Crashworthy?
The entire vehicle and its components must be crashworthy, including:
- Seats
- Seat belts
- Seat backs
- Tires
- Gas tanks
- Door latches
- Roofs
- Airbags
- Side-impact protection
This also includes any technology that comes with the vehicle to improve performance and safety, such as lane keep assist, blind-spot detection systems, and adaptive cruise control, also must be crashworthy.
Who Is Responsible for Crashworthiness
Vehicle manufacturers are responsible for ensuring their cars meet crashworthiness standards. If a defect in a car’s design or manufacturing leads to injury in a crash, the manufacturer may be held liable.
Common Types of Car Defects
Defects generally fall into three categories
Design Defects
Flaws in the vehicle’s design make it inherently unsafe (e.g., a vehicle prone to rollovers).
Manufacturing Defects
Errors during production cause certain vehicles to have dangerous flaws (e.g., faulty airbags that deploy unexpectedly).
Failure to Warn
A lack of adequate warnings or instructions about a vehicle’s potential dangers.
Pennsylvania Laws on Vehicle Defects
Under Pennsylvania product liability law, automakers can be held strictly liable if a defective vehicle causes injuries. This means victims do not need to prove negligence—only that the defect existed and led to harm.
Additionally, under the Pennsylvania Lemon Law, manufacturers must repair serious defects in new vehicles within a reasonable number of attempts or replace the car entirely.
When Does a Defect Lead to a Recall?
Auto recalls tend to be for specific parts that the manufacturer learns fail or don’t work efficiently. Manufacturers are required to provide free repairs for safety recalls on vehicles up to 15 years old. A vehicle is returned to the factory for repairs, purchased back, or replaced in rare situations.
Defective Automobile Compensation & Setting Things Right
In Pennsylvania, when you or a loved one are hurt because of a defective vehicle, the way to achieve justice is by demanding compensation.
While settlements or verdicts are meant to make you whole, they also force automakers to change. By demanding justice and not backing down, you’re fighting for every driver and passenger out there.
Types of Damages in a PA Defect Lawsuit
Compensation from a defective product lawsuit is called damages and can be broken down into:
- Economic Damages: These consist of your past and future monetary expenses and losses, such as your medical bills, lost wages, lost earning capacity, and other out-of-pocket costs.
- Non-Economic Damages: These are for your intangible losses, including pain and suffering, scarring, disfigurement, embarrassment, humiliation, and reduced enjoyment of life.
- Wrongful Death & Survival Damages: Particular surviving family members may be entitled to damages for the loss of a spouse, child, or parent, such as medical bills, funeral costs, estate expenses, and loss of their loved one’s future income. Survival damages are different. Your relative’s estate can recover for your loved one’s pain and suffering and lost earnings.
- Loss of Consortium: This compensation is for spouses who’ve lost their loved one’s services, assistance, support, comfort, companionship, and sexual relationship.
At Atlee Hall, we hold negligent automakers accountable and focus on improving your situation. That’s why we go above and beyond when assessing your damages. We paint a vivid picture for the court to prove what it will take to make you whole again.
How to Prove Automobile Defects in Pennsylvania
Even if we intend to resolve your claim with a negotiated settlement, our Pennsylvania car defect lawyers prepare every case as if we’re going to trial. We have years of success in the courtroom. We know what it takes to craft a compelling argument the other side can’t defeat.
