Auto Accidents and Defective Door Latches: Understanding Legal Responsibility
If your car has a defective door latch, it can result in severe and even fatal injuries in a car accident. In fact, for this reason, defective door latches may be cause for a product liability case. At our firm in Central Florida, we provide aggressive and thorough legal representation to the victims of poorly designed or manufactured vehicles. We will carefully examine all aspects of your accident to determine what role the defective part played in your injuries or your loved one’s death. Then we will work hard to get you the financial compensation you deserve.
What Is a Defective Door Latch?
When you purchased your vehicle, you probably did not give much thought to the door latches. You considered the brakes, the steering, the airbags, the side crash safety rating, and many other features. Door latches do not get a lot of attention. However, they are extremely important to the safety of a vehicle. If a latch is defective, the door can fly open in a crash. This is especially likely to happen in a side collision. With a defective door latch, there is an increased chance that you or your passengers can be thrown from the vehicle. Ejection can result in broken limbs, serious spine and head injuries, and even death. In fact, according to the National Highway Transportation Administration, people who are ejected from a vehicle during a car accident are three times more likely to be killed.
Who Is Responsible for Auto Accidents and Defective Door Latches?
If you or your loved one sustained serious injury or death due to a defective door latch, the vehicle manufacturer is legally responsible. You may be entitled to financial compensation to cover medical bills, lost wages, loss of livelihood, and pain and suffering. Even if the accident was your fault, you may still be entitled to compensation. Your injuries would likely have been less traumatic in a structurally sound car.
Federal law mandates that door latches be able to sustain certain forces. However, there is no crash test that can determine whether latches will hold in a side crash. Nevertheless, this does not lessen manufacturers’ culpability. They must be thorough in analyzing all parts of their vehicles.
What We Can Do in Your Case
At Chanfrau & Chanfrau, we are ready to provide legal assistance when you need it most. We will analyze all the circumstances surrounding your accident. Not only will we look at your vehicle. We will also consider road conditions, trajectory of the car, speed limit, and many other factors. In this way, we will ascertain whether the car manufacturer is guilty of negligence. We can also determine whether the other driver or another party may share some legal responsibility.
Contact an Auto Accident Lawyer
If you have been injured in an accident involving a defective door latch, contact our office as soon as possible. We want to help you get the compensation you deserve. We also want to bring negligent manufacturers to justice so that others do not experience similar tragic accidents.