Auto manufacturers invest a lot of time and energy into designing and producing cars that can hold up to the demands placed on them. The goal in manufacturing these vehicles is to ensure that the rate of impact gets distributed over the greatest distance and time should a collision occur. There’s less of a chance of passengers suffering bodily harm if auto manufacturers do this. This concept is known as crashworthiness. While many vehicles live up to these standards, there are a few that don’t.
Crashworthy features are supposed to minimize the possibility of a passenger getting ejected from a vehicle. They’re also supposed to reduce the risk of a fire happening, prevent seatbelt malfunctions and crumple zones as well as defective airbag deployments.
The concept of crashworthiness has nothing to do with what caused the accident. It instead centers around how injuries that passengers suffered were easily preventable and even made worse by the fact that there was a defect with the vehicle.
Injured parties can hold an automobile manufacturer liable if the vehicle that they produced failed to live up to its reasonable foreseeable use. The auto manufacturer is responsible for designing a reasonably safe vehicle. If a collision occurs, then an injured plaintiff could argue that the car failed to live up to its reasonable foreseeable use.
Any plaintiff that files a lawsuit must demonstrate that the injuries that they suffered are a direct result of the lack of crashworthiness of their vehicle. The plaintiff must be able to show that there was a reasonably avoidable design feature flaw that caused their injuries.
Individuals are hurt in auto accidents here in Baton Rouge every day. While other motorists are to blame for many of them, there are those rare instances in which these crashes are attributable to a car’s lack of crashworthiness. As an injured motorist, you may be able to sue an automobile manufacturer for such product defects. There are statutes of limitations that exist for filing lawsuits in Louisiana. You need to take immediate action in your case. A product liability attorney can assist you.