Las Vegas Injury & Accident Attorney Blog

If you ask your nearest Hollywood-movie skeptic, he’ll wear out your eardrums with critiques of easily shattering windows, extraordinarily accurate pistol skills (among heroes, not villains), and any of a number of jaw-dropping stunts so familiar from today’s action movies. But if the conversation turns to the far-fetched notion of gas tanks exploding from automobile accidents, you’ll have some fodder for a counterargument. This week has seen yet another series of recalls on defective cars including a new Ford vehicle recall.

Some of the most popular vehicles currently in use are under scrutiny for suspected product liabilities that can cause serious risks to passengers’ wellbeing. Among them is the top-selling Ford F150 pickup, which has seized the media’s attention in recent weeks as the government National Highway Transportation Safety Administration has ordered the recall of 1.4 million of the vehicles. The mandated recall — now expected to double to some 2.7 million automobiles — has to do with the premature failure of the steel straps that hold the truck’s fuel tank to the body of the car. It’s not hard to imagine what happens when these straps oxidize, weaken, and break: twenty-odd gallons of gasoline in a metal container begin thudding and dragging on the asphalt beneath the car. Sparks fly, fumes leak, and in some cases explosions occur that have engulfed a handful of the trucks in flames and burnt them throughout. There do not appear to have been any fatalities reported yet due to this vehicle defect, but if there is not swift action it will be just a matter of time until the first tragic Nevada wrongful death due to this resolvable issue.

In light of recent incidents such as the much-lampooned Toyota vehicle recall, one would think that Ford would act swiftly, decisively, and err on the side of caution. The consequences of a Las Vegas motor vehicle accident stemming from this defect would be horrific both for the public and for Ford’s PR efforts, and the fix is very inexpensive — it’s a couple of metal strips for each affected vehicle! Yet Ford’s overtures toward a wider recall have been lukewarm and unclear. It is unclear how many families will have to suffer the terror or even tragedy of living out these accidents firsthand rather than being spared the harm through proactive efforts on Ford’s part.

Other vehicle defects to be aware of this week include a problem with MINI Cooper model vehicles, which appear to be experiencing sudden loss of power-steering capabilities. We all rely on power steering to allow us quick, responsive control of our vehicles as we drive them at high speeds. Additionally, some 70,000 Volkswagen Jetta vehicles in the 2010-2011 model years have been recalled due to a wiring problem that can cause the windshield wipers and headlights to cease functioning. In Northern Nevada, such a loss of visibility could leave motorists stranded or even at risk of serious Nevada automobile crashes.

For all the gadgets we rely on and the luxury devices that we take for granted, ours is still a country where the hunt for profits can get ahead of the need for caution. If you or a loved one have suffered a personal injury due to a defective product, contact our team of experienced Las Vegas product liability attorneys today.

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Nevada Toyota owners are once again on alert as the Japanese company has issued a recall of more than 300,000 of its vehicles, these sport-utility vehicles in the popular RAV4 and Highlander models. Once held up as the paragon of disciplined engineering and manufacturing reliable automobiles, Toyota has seen its image upended over the last two years with a series of Toyota vehicle recalls.

This recall affects nearly 214,000 RAV4 vehicles in the 2007 and 2008 model years and Highlander SUVs from the 2008 cycle. These automobiles were popular among Nevada drivers because of the car company’s strong reputation and the relative boom period that the state was enjoying just before the housing bubble burst, the financial crisis hit, and Nevada’s economy was left in a shambles. Today, those Nevadans lucky enough to have jobs are finding themselves increasingly in lower-wage jobs with few benefits, and many families are having to bear the risk of Nevada workplace injuries just to keep food on the table.

The targeted vehicles are thought to have flawed side-airbag sensors that may not function properly. Side airbags have been a crucial development over the last ten years of automobile technology, credited with preventing serious injuries in Nevada vehicle rollover accidents by keeping passengers in the vehicle and limiting harm from the vehicle’s hard shell. In fact, Toyota was an early adopter of this technology in the late 1980s. But as this recall demonstrates, a side curtain airbag is of little use if it remains compressed in the vehicle’s side panels. A faulty airbag sensor can result in the non-deployment of an airbag, permitting injuries that should have been stopped and which car owners expected to be combated by the advertised safety features. Additional forms of Nevada product liability come from faulty airbags in the form of late or sudden deployment of the airbags, which can actually exacerbate injuries instead of preventing them.

If your family owns one of the recalled vehicles, you should contact your car dealer and find out the details of the recall to ensure that your car receives any attention or maintenance that it needs. If a loved one has been hurt in an accident involving one of these malfunctioning SUVs, contact our team of Las Vegas automobile injury attorneys today for a free consultation.

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From the reports of the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration to the sassy monologues of late-night comedians, Toyota’s vehicle recall headaches have been well documented. Most famously, Toyota is still struggling to move beyond a rash of “sudden unintended acceleration” problems in its vehicles, automobile defects that are implicated in nearly 100 deaths from Nevada to New Hampshire. Now, a large part of the automaker’s popular SUV fleet is making headlines with a different issue.

After nearly three dozen complaints nationwide, the NHTSA has issued a recall of more than 40,000 Toyota Highlander vehicles due to a flaw that can lead the engine to stall, sometimes while the vehicle is moving at high speed. So far there have been no automobile injuries linked to the defective vehicles, but this run of good luck may run out soon and in tragic fashion. Two-thirds of the reported vehicle problems occurred at speeds in excess of 40 MPH; it is not hard to imagine such a Nevada automobile defect revealing itself tragically amidst high-speed, close-following Las Vegas traffic. An even larger number of reports claim that the vehicle would not restart after the engine failed, stranding drivers not only with the inconvenience of an interrupted commute and a costly tow-truck bill but in some cases leaving them standing idle on dangerous freeways or busy intersections.

Although this latest blemish on Toyota’s historically strong reliability record is another benign setback with — so far — no harmful after-effects, orchestrating a 40,000-vehicle recall is harder than issuing it. We hope that the NHTSA is able to work with automobile dealers and the Toyota company to quickly and comprehensively contact all affected drivers so they may have their vehicles repaired in a timely fashion. However, we are here to help any Nevada driver injured by a defective automobile. We have been around for the Ford-Firestone tire recall, the first round of Toyota recalls, and we will be ready to help when the next waves of recalls inevitably occur. If you need an experienced Las Vegas personal injury attorney to take your Nevada recalled vehicle accident lawsuit, look no further.

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Last year reports of sudden unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles dominated headlines and plagued the generally respected automaker’s profits;  years prior, a widespread pattern of defective Firestone tires installed on Ford vehicles caused an uproar when tire tread separation in these products were linked to a rash of devastating accidents. Rival car companies have surely enjoyed the perverse attention being shined on their competitors, and as the economy has slumped the automobile market has taken on an even stronger zero-sum sensibility. Now, Japanese auto manufacturer Honda has recalled several thousand vehicles in the United States.

The Nevada automobile recall includes some 700,000 Honda vehicles across the world. The issue appears to be a wrongly installed spring in the engine box, which can fail and lead the engine to stall suddenly. The company is hoping to reach vehicle owners quickly to repair the problem, but automobile recalls can be difficult to execute because vehicles can change hands so rapidly and sometimes informally, without a paper trail to follow. If you have a late-model Honda City, Honda Fit, or Honda Freed, you should visit a Honda dealership to find out if your vehicle may be eligible for a repair under the recall.

Our hope is that Honda drivers will be able to obtain a fix for this recall before any problems arise. It does not take much imagination to think of possible devastating impacts of this Nevada automobile defect problem — Las Vegas drivers stalling suddenly on the busy freeway and being involved in rear-end collisions; a sudden loss of speed while trying to pass another vehicle on a two-lane road could result in a ghastly Southern Nevada automobile accident. And on and on. The Toyota vehicle recall has been blamed for as many as 100 deaths, and investigations and litigation on the matter continue. If you or a loved one have been involved in a Nevada car accident with any recalled vehicle, you may have legal rights to compensation. We offer free consultations — call us today.

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More than 3,000 drivers across the United States have complained to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration about episodes of sudden acceleration in Toyota vehicles. In all, nearly 100 deaths have been attributed to problems arising from sudden, uncontrolled speed thought to be related to “sticky” gas pedals, clunky floor mats, and other engineering errors that suggest significant defective product issues.

Numerous lawsuits have arisen out of this saga, many of which have been consolidated into a class-action suit in the state of California. There, a district court judge has been overseeing a massive discovery effort to assess the role corporate negligence played in this dangerous phenomenon.

One interesting development in this case is the judge’s decision to permit the plaintiffs to sue Toyota for economic loss related to the sudden-acceleration problem. These losses include both the “loss” of having overpaid for a Toyota automobile with a previously strong reputation for reliability and safety only to have the car fall victim to this widespread and serious operational issue. The flip side is that drivers now attempting to sell their vehicles face a second-hand auto market that looks upon late-model Toyota vehicles with great suspicion, deflating the resale value even of vehicles not thought to be affected by these defects.

As Nevada attorneys with a record of strong representation in Las Vegas vehicle recall cases, our lawyers are closely monitoring this case and its developments. Call us today if you are a Toyota owner in Nevada and you want more information, or if you have any other questions about a possible Las Vegas defective product lawsuit.

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