Tire Event, Rollover, and Fatality Accident in Andrews County, Texas

2010 February 15
by Justin Hill

Tire Event, Rollover, and Fatality Accident in Andrews County, Texas by Texas Rollover Accident Attorney Justin A. Hill

An article published today at CBS7KOSA.com is a perfect example of why it is necessary for trained eyes to review potential automotive defect cases. The article states, in part:

A Hobbs woman is dead following a one-vehicle rollover in Andrews County, early Sunday afternoon.  It happened around 1:10 PM on Highway 176, 30 miles west of Andrews.  DPS tells us that Eric Soto of Hobbs, was driving a 1989 Ford Bronco when it’s left tire blew out which caused the vehicle to rollover.  24-year-old Ashley Nicole Soto was pronounced dead on the scene.  Eric Soto was transported to a hospital in Eunice and is listed in stable condition, with non-life threatening injuries.

First, it is almost impossible to evaluate any case for any possible defects without securing  evidence, reviewing the police investigation, photographing the vehicle and scene, talking to witnesses and thoroughly examining the vehicle with an expert. However, there are many points in those few sentences that indicate the need to investigate the accident for a potential product defect.
  1. The type of injury–death–raises the possibility that some safety system in the vehicle failed to adequately protect the occupants. Typically, a biomechanics expert will help evaluate the crash to determine the mechanism of injury and whether it could have been avoided.
  2. The fact that there was a tire event is also important in the evaluation of this factual scenario.  While the article calls the event a “blowout” it could have been any number of manufacturing defects or design defects which caused or contributed to the cause of this accident.  There may have been a tire detread, tire delamination and/or some other tire failure, that contributed to or caused the loss of control.
  3. The vehicle rolled over. Vehicles should not roll over. Determining why this vehicle rolled would be important in evaluating a possible product defect case. Was the vehicle defectively designed in regard to stability and/or handling? Was the vehicle equipped with electronic stability control or any other technology designed to keep a vehicle from losing control and/or rolling over? These questions, among many others, are very important. Numerous vehicle design experts are employed to help evaluate such important questions.
As the reader can see, automotive defect cases are complex and time and expert intensive. This is why it is extremely important that attorneys with experience in these areas of the law are employed quickly to evaluate any potential automotive defect claims.

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from → Electronic Stability Control, Fatality Accident, Lawsuit, Rollover, Roof Crush, Safer Alternative Design, Seatbelt, Tire Detread/Delamination

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