Automobile Design Defects Lawsuits.

Each year an estimated 40,000 people die in motor vehicle accidents. These accidents represent the leading cause of death among Americans ages one through thirty-seven. Despite advances in safety measures, motor vehicle accidents remain inevitable. By employing proper safety designs, motor vehicle manufacturers can prevent many of the deaths and serious injuries that result from automobile accidents. Under the law, manufacturers have a duty to protect occupants riding in their vehicles from foreseeable collisions - to make the vehicles "crashworthy."

As early as the beginning of the twentieth century, engineers recommended that manufacturers take efforts to protect vehicle passengers and drivers from collisions. Engineers suggested using a strong shell-like body that keeps occupants in a vehicle and does not collapse in an accident; padding the inside of a vehicle to soften any contact occupants may have with a vehicle's interior in a collision; restraining occupants to minimize contact with the interior; maximizing a vehicle's ability to absorb energy so that less force is put on occupants in a collision, and transmitting the forces generated in a crash onto the strongest portions of occupants' bodies.

Despite the fact that crashworthiness concepts have existed for many years, manufacturers often fail or refuse to employ crashworthiness technology in the design of their vehicles. For instance, manufacturers delayed installing seatbelts in cars and trucks. The notorious Ford Pinto was known to explode in rear-end collisions. During litigation it was revealed that Ford refused to fix this problem because an analysis determined that its financial exposure to lawsuits was less than the cost of adding a device that would prevent the fires.