Chicago Personal Injury Law Blog

A Pekin man who was a passenger involved in a three-vehicle accident on Interstate 74 in Urbana was ejected from the vehicle and killed when the vehicle in which he was riding rolled over. The accident happened when another driver slowed to make a U-turn in a restricted lane in the median. The vehicle in which the deceased man was behind that car and was forced to jam on its brakes to avoid hitting the other car. However a vehicle behind them which was pulling a trailer could not stop, resulting in a rear-end accident. They were pushed off the road and rolled over. The Pekin resident was ejected from the vehicle while it rolled over and was killed. The other three men in the car were not ejected and suffered only minor injuries.

Having a vehicle roll over following a collision is a foreseeable occurrence. The law requires that vehicles be designed to keep occupants safe from additional injury during this kind of event. In other words the passenger restraint system must keep occupants from being ejected from the car during a roll-over following a crash. Assuming that the restraint system (i.e. seat belts) was in use and there was a flaw in the design or manufacture, there may be a basis for a product liability wrongful death lawsuit against the manufacturer of the vehicle.

Anyone who is contemplating a product liability case of any kind, but especially one against a car manufacturer, should do two things. One is hire an experienced personal injury lawyer. The other is to preserve the remains of the vehicle. Destroying or repairing the remains of the vehicle may result in the dismissal of the products liability case.

Labels: Car crashes, dangerous products, wrongful death