Rollover Car Crashes in Las Vegas
A tragic accident on Interstate 15 highway between Los Angeles and Las Vegas when one of their vehicles rolled over, killing two family members and seriously injuring four others.
A spokesman for the California Highway Patrol (CHP), told the Reporter that the van tumbled over into the center divider of the highway, ejecting four of the van’s passengers.
The four survivors were airlifted by a helicopter to Arrowhead Regional Medical Center and Loma Linda University Medical Center for severe injuries ranging from head and back trauma to abdominal injuries. The recent bankruptcy of GM will impact how Las Vegan’s recover from roll over tragedies.
The GM Reorganization and Product Liability Claims
The U.S. Treasury Department is negotiating with more than a dozen state attorneys general to roll back two key features of General Motors Corp.’s bankruptcy plan that would have wiped out billions of dollars in potential claims from car-accident victims and closed auto dealers.
The discussions show how the federal government’s GM rescue is brushing up against the limits of its ambitious legal approach, which attempted to use the Bankruptcy Code to override many state legal contracts and protections.
This could ultimately expand the cost of GM’s $60 billion bailout, though government officials say it
shouldn’t delay the emergence of a “new GM” from bankruptcy protection. This article recently made it on to the law professor blog for mass torts.
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Victims Have Historically Been Able to Recover Their Damages
The Firestone lawsuit
The settlement of the $1 billion lawsuit a Texas family filed against Bridgestone/Firestone over a Ford Explorer rollover involving Firestone tires would be impossible under a bankruptcy discharge.
The settlement came in the first of more than 100 lawsuits filed against the Nashville, Tenn. -based company to come to trial since the recall of 6.5 million tires last summer. The tires have been linked to 203 traffic deaths and more than 700 injuries in the United States.
Firestone lawyers blamed the rollover on the design of the Ford Explorer and urged the jurors to hold Ford responsible. The Rodriguez family has settled with Ford for a reported $6 million.
Firestone attorneys introduced several internal Ford documents that said the Explorer had a propensity to lose steering control and roll over.
Dealerships That Historically Paid for Injuries cased by Their Negligence Will be Immunized if They Go Bankrupt
A passenger injured in a vehicle fire where the dealership was at fault reached a $250,000 settlement of his Phelps County personal injury case against a car dealership that attempted to repair a fuel-line leak a couple of days before the fire.
Wenzel was hospitalized at Maricopa for 13 days before he was released, and his parents took him back to Pennsylvania for recuperation. He received successful follow-up treatment for a year, leaving little to no visible scarring. His medical bills totaled $69,849.
Plaintiff’s automotive mechanics expert, Michael Hearrold, testified that a reasonable mechanic would have replaced the entire fuel line instead of attempting to splice out a portion and clamp it together. Hearrold explained that the attempted repair by Hutcheson Ford was not done properly because neither of the ends was flared.
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