Scranton Car Defect Accident Lawyer

When you buy a car, you expect it to work as intended, and to keep working after natural wear and tear. You, nor the car seller/manufacturer can control what other drivers do on the road, but they can control how well your car protects you beforehand. Before you drive your new or used car, it must pass crashworthiness tests to prove that it is a functional and safe vehicle. If it does not pass these tests, the car can’t be sold to you.

Sometimes cars that don’t pass crashworthiness tests are sold to people anyway, or worse, the cars pass but the tests didn’t catch issues they should have. This can lead to a manufacturing error or an issue from a previous accident causing the vehicle’s protections to fail. This can lead to the car needing expensive repairs at best, and a dangerous car accident at worst.

You likely won’t know immediately what caused you or a loved one’s car accident until after a mechanic looks at it. Once they have and it’s an issue that the seller or manufacturer should have caught, you can seek compensation. The car defect accident lawyers and crashworthiness attorneys at Scartelli Olszewski, P.C. can help.

What is Crashworthiness?

Crashworthiness refers specifically to the vehicle’s ability to protect passengers in the case of an accident. This means that a failure in the vehicle isn’t always an example of poor crashworthiness. A crashworthiness case is where someone has been injured in a car accident where the car should have been able to protect them, or at least minimize damage.

There are cases, such as an extreme head-on collision or severe crash where a vehicle can’t save you. No vehicle is a miracle machine, but there are standards a vehicle should be able to meet.

Examples of Vehicles Not Being Crashworthy

There are numerous ways for a vehicle to fail its crashworthiness in an accident, but there are several vehicle features and areas where it happens more than others. If your vehicle failed to protect you or your passengers due to any of the following reasons, you may have a crashworthiness case.

• Rollover: There are two types of rollover accidents where the vehicles fail to protect you. One is where the roof crushes under the pressure of the impact. When your car flips, your roof is expected to hold in most instances, and if it crumbles, you and your passengers can be gravely injured.
• Seat Defects: When a seat is not properly constructed and moves during an accident, it can lead to severe injury.
• Seatbelt Defects: If your or your passengers’ seatbelts do not hold during an accident, you can be seriously injured even in a minor accident. Seatbelts are integral to vehicle safety and are one of the first features tested for safety.
• Airbags: Airbags are known for failing more than any other safety feature, and have been known to cause more injuries than they have prevented. They have been known not to go off, to trigger without warning, and to cause greater injury.
• Acceleration Control: Drivers need to be able to control their vehicle’s acceleration, and if there is something wrong, that can lead to dangerous accidents. It’s a basic feature that every vehicle needs to have tested.
• Tire Defects: All cars need tires but because they are in constant contact with the ground, crashworthiness issues with them can be hard to detect. Also, because they are made from tough rubber, they may be faulty despite operating correctly for a long period of time. A problem can appear at any moment, leading to a flat tire or a tire exploding. It can be difficult to discover a crashworthiness error, so be sure to bring all reports and evidence from your mechanic to your legal consultation.

Why Trust the Crashworthiness Attorneys at Scartelli Olszewski, P.C.?

The attorneys at Scartelli Olszewski, P.C. have been helping people get compensation for car accidents for years. Sometimes, when things get worse or fail unexpectedly, you may not know who is at fault. If your mechanic suggests that your vehicle was faulty to begin with, turn to our Scranton car defect accident lawyers.

We have been dealing with faulty cars failing to protect their passengers for years. Once we review the evidence, we can share information on how your vehicle manufacturer may have failed you, and provide you with options for seeking legal compensation.

So, if a safety feature in your vehicle has failed to perform as intended in a crash and has resulted in serious injuries and car repairs, call us for a free consultation. We’ll help you understand whether or not you may have a crashworthiness case. Time matters in these cases and early investigation is necessary to preserve and document evidence, so contact us as soon as possible.