$900,000 Settlement for Automotive Product Defect

The firm represented the estate of a wife and mother of four young children in a claim against a driver who left the scene of the accident and the manufacturer of her SUV. The firm’s client was killed when a vehicle tailgating her caused her vehicle to veer onto the shoulder of the highway. When she steered her vehicle back into the lane of travel her SUV lost control, ultimately spinning off of the roadway. The tailgating vehicle left the scene of the accident and was never identified.

The lawyers representing the tailgating vehicle claimed that the accident happened because the firm’s client wasn’t paying attention to the roadway. The firm worked with expert accident reconstructionists to prove that the loss of control was due to a combination of the tailgating driver and the fact that the SUV did not have a readily available electronic stability control system which would have prevented the loss of control. The Estate settled with the tailgating driver and the manufacturer of the SUV prior to trial for a combined total of $900,000.