Automotive Defect Product Liability Claims — When Your Car Was the Problem

## When the Car Itself Is Responsible for Your Injuries

Car accidents are often caused by driver negligence — but a significant percentage are caused or made catastrophically worse by defects in the vehicle itself. Defective airbags, faulty brakes, tire blowouts, fuel tank explosions, and rollover instability have killed and injured thousands of Americans. When your vehicle's design or manufacturing causes or exacerbates your injuries, you may have a product liability claim against the manufacturer that is entirely separate from any personal injury claim against the other driver.

The Takata airbag recall — affecting over 100 million vehicles — resulted in at least 27 deaths and hundreds of injuries from metal shrapnel ejected by defective inflators, producing billions in liability for manufacturers and insurers.

Common Automotive Defects That Generate Product Liability Claims

Airbag failures: non-deployment in crashes, rupture and metal fragmentation, unexpected deployment
Brake system defects: master cylinder failure, ABS malfunction, brake fade under normal use conditions
Seatbelt defects: latches that unbuckle on impact, pretensioners that fail to activate
Tire defects: tread separation, sidewall blowouts under normal load and speed conditions
Roof crush defects: inadequate structural strength in rollover accidents
Fuel system defects: tanks positioned in crush zones, post-collision fire risk
Electronic stability control failures
Sudden unintended acceleration

Building an Automotive Product Liability Case

These cases require immediate and aggressive evidence preservation. Vehicles involved in serious accidents are often destroyed, sold for scrap, or repaired quickly — eliminating your physical evidence.

Place a litigation hold on the vehicle immediately — your attorney can send preservation letters to insurance companies and towing yards
The Event Data Recorder (EDR or "black box") stores speed, braking, and steering inputs from the seconds before impact — request its preservation and download by a qualified engineer
Document all injuries with the specific mechanism of harm: did the airbag fail to deploy? Did you suffer burns from a fuel fire? Was your roof crushed?
Research the NHTSA complaint database for reported defects in your vehicle's make, model, and year
Check whether any Technical Service Bulletins (TSBs) or recalls were issued for components related to your accident
Identify all parties in the manufacturing chain: the vehicle manufacturer, any component part suppliers, and the dealer if a known defect was not repaired

Automotive defect cases often involve parallel claims: a personal injury claim against the at-fault driver and a separate product liability claim against the vehicle manufacturer. Both can be pursued simultaneously, and an experienced attorney will coordinate them to maximize your total recovery.