Personal Injury

Seat back failure, caused by defects in design, construction, installation, or wear of a vehicle’s seats, can result in serious injury and even death during rear impact collisions. While sound seat back design and installation protocol have existed for a long time, some vehicles still house defective seats, which can cause added injury and damage in auto accidents.

According to government sources, over one thousand people are killed and another 1,500 injured every year due to seat back failure during an auto accident. Recent reports indicate that seat back standards are not stringent enough, which has enabled several cars with defective seats to enter the market and pose a serious threat to the public.

Seat back failure poses the biggest risk in rear end collisions when a seat back collapses backwards during an accident. This can cause a driver to lose control, collide with interior parts of the vehicle resulting in injury, or may interfere with the seat belt system, thereby rendering such restrain ineffective. In more serious accidents, passengers have even been ejected from a vehicle after slipping out the restraint system due to seat back failure. Furthermore, a collapsed seatback can trap rear passengers in the car, which can present serious risks in many accident cases, particularly those involving a fuel fed fire.

Causes of Seat Back Failure

Defects that lead to seat back failure can be traced back to faulty design, faulty construction, or flawed installation. Non-sturdy, defective, or otherwise sub-par seat backs, seat ramps (the part you sit on), recliner mechanisms, and seat tracks may all be responsible for seat back failure in an accident. In order to trace the factors that caused injury or death in an automobile accident, it is necessary for a qualified and professional accident surveyor to investigate the situation to see if seat back failure occurred.

If you suspect that seat back failure may have occurred in an accident involving you or a loved one, it is a good idea to have someone on your side looking out for your best interest. Immediately following an accident, it is optimal to have a professional unbiased surveyor complete a comprehensive report about the accident, which is often done by police but can also be done by private companies (including insurance companies). A qualified legal professional and his or her team of experts can evaluate this evidence to determine if seat back failure might have occurred during the accident.

Seat Back Failure and Your Legal Rights

In cases where seat back failure has caused injury to drivers and/or passengers in vehicle accidents, these victims have the legal right to seek compensation for their losses and suffering from the entity responsible for this auto defect. To learn more about seat back failure and your legal rights, please contact the qualified and experienced accident and product defect attorneys at Aitken Aitken and Cohn for a free and confidential case evaluation.

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Santa Ana, California, 92707
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