Car Accidents

March 31, 2015

GM Settles Family’s Second Faulty Ignition Switch Lawsuit Over Daughter’s Wrongful Death

The parents of Brooke Melton have settled their second auto products liability case with General Motors. Brooke, 29, died on her birthday in 2010 when her 2005 Chevrolet Cobalt skid on a wet road and was struck by another car.

Experts hired by the Meltons’ legal team said that the ignition of the Cobalt had slipped from “run” into “accessory” mode just before the collision, causing the engine, power steering, airbags, and power brakes to become disabled. They also identified that the ignition switch used in the Cobalt was not the same as the one found in cars of the same model that were built in the years following. The products defects case was settled for $5 million.

However, after GM disclosed that a number of its vehicles were linked to an ignition switch defect last year—the company eventually recalling some 2.6 million vehicles—the Meltons sued the automaker again, claiming that the company committed fraud by settling the first case while continuing to knowingly sell faulty ignition switches. The manufacturer’s own engineers have said that excessive weight or jarring on an ignition key may cause the switch to move from “run” to “accessory” mode, shutting off the power.

October 30, 2014

Mechanical Failure May Have Caused Deadly Halloween Hayride Crash

by Altman & Altman

According to officials, a mechanical issue may have caused the Jeep serving as the Gauntlet Haunted Night hayride vehicle at Harvest Hill Farms to go down a hill at rapid speed, strike a tree, and overturn earlier this month in Maine. 17-year-old Cassidy Charette sustained fatal injuries in the crash. 22 others were injured.

Charette was with seven other students from her high school for their annual hayride when the tragic vehicle crash happened. Among the injured were two with critical injuries, including 16-year-old Connor Garland and David Brown, 54, who was driving the Jeep. Garland was transported to Boston Children’s Hospital. According to Fox News, Brown was hauling a flatbed trailer as part of the ride.

Following the hayride accident, State Police impounded the 1979 Jeep CJ5a. A safety probe was conducted.

October 21, 2014

Massachusetts Suspends ET-Plus Guardrail Use Because of Traffic Injury Risks

by Altman & Altman

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation has decided to stop the use of a guardrail-end terminal over concerns that there may be safety issues. The rail-end guardrail pieces, known as the ET-Plus, are made by Trinity Industries of Texas. The manufacturer has already have been the subject of products liability lawsuits by motorists claiming they lost their legs in traffic crashes.

This week, a federal jury ruled that Trinity should pay $175 million in a whistleblower lawsuit that exposed the hazards involved with using the guardrail end caps. It was guardrail installer Josh Harman who accused Trinity of making the ET-Plus unsafe when the company redesigned it.

He sued Trinity under the False Claims Act’s qui tam provisions. As the whistleblower, Harman is entitled to a percentage of what is recovered. Because of statutory mandate, the $175 million figure is expected to triple.

October 7, 2014

Over 1,800 Massachusetts State Police Car Crashes in the Last Five Years, Reports The Boston Globe

by Altman & Altman

According to The Boston Globe, in the last five years, there have been over 1,800 Massachusetts car crashes involving State Police vehicles-that’s nearly one collision a day. Law enforcement authorities say that hundreds of these accidents occurred because troopers were speeding, disregarding traffic signs, or breaking other safety rules.

Records indicate that approximately 100 people annually are hurt in Massachusetts State Police car crashes. In 2013 alone, there were over 400 collisions, including 306 Boston auto collisions.

Also, in the last ten years the department has paid over $3 million in collision settlements. The amount could have been more if there wasn’t a $100,000 statutory limit on negligence claims brought against government agencies in the state. At least four of the Massachusetts police traffic crashes involved fatalities.

September 12, 2014

Will the Number of Massachusetts Car Crash Deaths Go Up if Selling Marijuana Become Legal?

by Altman & Altman

With Massachusetts and other states seeking to join Washington and Colorado in legalizing the retail sales of marijuana for recreational purposes, safety advocates are worried that this could increase the number of traffic crash fatalities that happen. While it remains illegal everywhere in the country to drive while under the influence of pot, that doesn’t mean that people don’t do it-especially if it becomes more easily accessible.

According to studies, marijuana can interfere with multitasking, impair decision-making, and reduce peripheral vision, which are skills necessary for safe driving. However, unlike drunk drivers, motorists that are stoned tend to realize that they are impaired and may try to be more careful when behind the steering wheel. Still, like alcohol, marijuana seems to make a user more careless. Also, the more inexperienced a pot smoker is, the more likely he/she is to become impaired because no tolerance level has been built up.

Young adult males and teen boys are the groups most likely to smoke pot and then drive. They are also the ones most at risk of becoming involved in a traffic crash when under its influence.

August 26, 2014

Judge Rejects GM’s Bid to Stop Faulty Ignition Switch Lawsuit That Spurred Recalls

by Altman & Altman

A state judge is allowing the wrongful death lawsuit that first brought to light General Motors’ faulty ignition switch problem to be reopened. The automaker had sought to have the auto products liability case, which had already been settled, stopped.

The parents of Brooke Melton had resolved the case with the automaker in 2013, months before GM started to recall vehicles over the defect. The plaintiffs are now claiming that the automaker lied to them about not knowing about the safety issue.

The auto defect involved a faulty switch that can automatically shut off the engine of the affected vehicle and prevent the air bags from activating. This year, GM admitted that as far back as a decade ago a few of its employees knew about the problem. Melton died in 2010 when her 2005 Chevrolet Cobalt hydroplaned, hitting another vehicle and then going off road and into a ditch.

June 16, 2014

Distracted Driving: US DOT Wants to Regulate Vehicle Navigation Devices

by Altman & Altman

The U.S. Department of Transportation wants Congress to give its National Highway Traffic Safety Administration the power to place restrictions on vehicle navigation applications. It also would like for the NHTSA to be able mandate changes to these devices if any of them prove too dangerous to use while driving.

According to The New York Times, although automakers support the proposed measure that would grant this authority, it is technology companies that have expressed opposition. The latter believes such a law would not be enforceable.

The DOT has been seeking to regulate map aids and other such applications. In 2013, the department issued voluntary guidelines telling automakers that no more than two seconds should be needed for anyone one interaction with a navigation system. The total time required to use such a device should take no more than 12 seconds. (The New York Times notes that when a car is moving at 60 mph, two seconds is all it needs to travel 176 feet.)

June 5, 2014

GM Inquiry Over The Delay in Recalling Cars with Faulty Ignition Switches Cites Incompetence, Neglect

by Altman & Altman

According to an internal probe by General Motors, a “pattern of incompetence and neglect” played a role in the automaker’s failure for years to recall millions of defective vehicles that had faulty ignition switches. However, the investigation also said that while there were individuals who “repeatedly” neglected to reveal critical information about the safety issue, no intentional cover-up took place.

Today, GM CEO Mary T. Barra announced that 15 employees were fired over the investigation’s findings, while five others were disciplined. She noted that most of those who were let go were in senior or executive positions. Barras said that there were individuals at the company who seemed more concerned with finding “reasons not to act” instead of looking for ways to protect customers.

The faulty ignition problem has been linked to 47 collisions and 13 fatalities-and these numbers are expected to grow. To date, nearly 2.6 million autos have been recalled as of the end of January because of this safety issue alone.

April 16, 2014

Newly Released Memo Reveals “Smoking Gun” in GM Recall Mess

by Altman & Altman

It appears as though the smallest, seemingly insignificant decision brought an auto giant to its knees. Media outlets and the general public alike have been closely following the General Motors recall crisis, searching for answers and where to place blame. After months of mounting mistakes and shifting responsibilities, a memo discussing a fix for the ignition switch problem plaguing millions of GM vehicles was uncovered by congressional investigators. In it, according to Forbes Magazine’s Micheline Maynard, is the so-called “smoking gun memo” from then-GM Ray DeGiorgio.

The General Motors recall mess has been strewn all over front page news for months now. Most of the scrutiny around the Detroit-based auto giant revolves around a defect in the ignition switch, causing the key to easily slip into the “off” position, cutting power to the car. This defect, which has the potential to cause an accident, has affected nearly 2.6 million Chevrolet Cobalt, Saturn Ion and other Saturn and Pontiac models. The design issue has been blamed for 13 deaths so far, and GM has recalled those vehicles. In addition, the auto manufacturer warned that the ignition switch in question could have been used to repair the vehicles that had been recalled.
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April 3, 2014

Social Media Posts Can Put Your Personal Injury Claim at Risk

by Altman & Altman

In the age of the internet, a keyboard is never more than a few inches away. Access to social media is literally at your fingertips, beckoning to vent your frustration to hundreds, thousands, maybe millions of followers. Most internet-savvy people would reach right for their phones after a car accident or injury to blow off some steam or to keep concerned loved ones informed of their condition. However, new data suggests social media fiends should think twice before posting about a personal injury case.

Insurance companies will try to use any posts, pictures, or interactions to dispute claims and prevent victims from receiving compensation for their injuries. The insurance companies can easily access your personal Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and any other social media site to gather information that can be used against claimants to prove that they are misrepresenting injuries.

The practice might come as a surprise to most of the general public. It is a common assumption that medical records and doctor testimony is enough to back up claims made by personal injury victims, but in truth, insurance companies “actively work to disprove claims made by a victim’s doctor. Social media can be an integral tool in this pursuit,” according to Attorney Brian J. Mongelluzzo.
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