Jacksonville Injury Attorney Blog
Back on June 5, the last day of school, a fifteen year old was driving a Ford Explorer with eight other teens as passengers. As they traveled on I-295 near Pritchard Road in Jacksonville, Florida, a tire blew out and the vehicle flipped over.
All eight of the passengers were ejected from the vehicle. None of them were wearing seatbelts. Tragically, five of those ejected died. The driver was wearing his seatbelt and was not ejected and did not suffer serious personal injuries.
The driver has been charged with eight felony counts of driving without a license in a car crash where people were killed or suffered personal injuries. The mother of one of those killed asked the Judge to allow the driver to be released from jail because she did not blame him, instead she blamed the manufacturer of the blown tire.
Several years ago, there was a lot of news coverage about both tire defects and Ford Explorers resulting in rollover accidents. If the tire was defective, the parents of the injured or killed teens may bring a product liability case against the manufacturer. Such a case will focus on expert analysis of the remnants of the blown tire and efforts to explain what caused it to fail.
Cases such as this are complex and expensive. Expert fees will likely range in excess of $100,000.00. Just because a tire blew does not mean that it was defective. The tire may have been very old and need of replacement prior to the accident or it may have struck an object in the road causing it to separate or blow out.
If you have any questions about an auto accident or product liability case, please contact our Jacksonville injury lawyers for a free consultation.