Product Liability

Many automakers have come under fire in recent years due to safety defects, but the latest recall involving Mazda cars is something no automotive designer or manufacturer could have anticipated. Mazda has announced a recall for thousands of its vehicles because of a fuel line problem that could result in potentially dangerous cracks and leaks. The recall involves a spider species and its fondness for the smell of gasoline. The Yellow Sac spider, a species common here in the U.S., likes the smell of gasoline so much that it builds its webs in the emission systems of automobiles. The design of the fuel system in Mazda6 vehicles allows these gas-loving spiders to crawl in and build webs, which can lead to a restriction in the vent line that can cause the emission control system to increase pressure in the fuel tank.
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Nestle Prepared Foods has announced a recall after receiving reports of plastic particles found in their Lean Cuisine Simple Favorites, Spaghetti with Meatballs product. Nestle is recalling 10,260 pounds of the product after receiving complaints from buyers in three different states about pieces of hard plastic found in the food. Inspectors with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Inspection Services also found chunks of plastic in Nestle’s Lean Cuisine Simple Favorites, Spaghetti with Meatballs product. They reported that the tainted food appears to have been sold in states west of the Rocky Mountains.
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Vacuum cleaner manufacturer Hoover has recalled more than 140,000 of its Hoover Wind Tunnel Canister Vacuums after dozens of reports of the vacuum overheating and starting fires. Hoover announced the recall at the request of the Consumer Product Safety Commission after receiving more than 70 reports from customers that the vacuum overheated while plugged into an outlet even after they turned it off. In one case, the vacuum caught fire and burned a section of carpet in the owner’s home.
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Orlando personal injury lawyer James O. Cunningham would like to alert all parents of infants that a massive recall of baby monitors is underway after two babies became entangled in the cords and were strangled. The recall was issued in early February after an investigation by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) found that electrical cords for the monitors posed a serious strangulation hazard for babies if placed too close to the crib. Nearly two million Summer Infant monitors are affected by the recall. The deaths of a 10-month-old girl in Washington, D.C. who was strangled by the cord of a Summer Infant monitor camera placed near her crib, and a six-month-old South Carolina boy who was also strangled when he became entangled in a monitor’s electrical cord prompted this recall.
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The Supreme Court ruled recently that the family of a woman killed in a head-on collision may sue the manufacturer of the minivan she was traveling in for failing to install lap-and-shoulder belts. The Court’s decision was unanimous after Mazda, the maker of the minivan involved in the fatal crash, argued that the lawsuit should be dismissed as they had been in full compliance with federal safety regulations. Mazda said regulations allowed it to decide whether to install lap belts or lap-and-shoulder belts in rear seats. Mazda cited a similar Supreme Court ruling in 2000 that allowed automakers the option of installing airbags. In that case, Geier v. American Honda Motor Company, the Court ruled that federal regulations foreclosed the filing of injury litigation under state law by people who claimed the automakers had made the wrong choice.
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Orlando personal injury attorney James O. Cunningham is monitoring reports of a new recall involving Ford’s popular F-150 pickup trucks. Ford Motor Company recently announced that they were recalling 150,000 F-150s due to problems with airbags deploying unexpectedly without having been triggered by any impact. Ford has traced the problem to an airbag control wire located within the steering wheel assembly that may have been installed incorrectly. Unless the wire is in the proper location, it can move around during normal driving, and this movement can potentially erode the protective coating from the wire. When the exposed wire comes into contact with the metal, it creates a path to ground, resulting in the airbag light coming on and the potential for airbag deployment with no warning.
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Honda recently announced the recall of 700,000 of its Fit models, nearly 100,000 in the U.S., for problems with a spring in the engines of these vehicles. Orlando personal injury attorney James O. Cunningham is monitoring developments in the recall closely, concerned that engine problems on busy Florida highways and interstates could result in auto accidents.
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Parents have known about the dangers of drop-side cribs for some time. The risks of suffocation when a baby is trapped while one side of the crib drops are significant, and there have been some high-profile recalls in recent years to protect infants from injury and death. Orlando personal injury attorney James O. Cunningham would like parents to know that non-drop-side cribs pose a serious risk to babies as well. Swedish furniture giant IKEA recently announced the recall of more than 20,000 non-drop-side cribs in the U.S. to address problems with the mattress support system. IKEA has said that some of the bolts holding the mattress support system in place are not long enough and the mattress can collapse under the weight of an infant, creating a suffocation hazard. The IKEA recall involves Sniglar brand cribs sold from October 2005 to June 2010.
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Nissan North America has announced a recall for 604,500 of its XTerra, Sentra and Frontier models primarily sold in the U.S. to fix problems with battery cables and steering columns. Nissan has recalled 303,000 of its popular Frontier trucks and 283,000 XTerra SUVs to replace a lower steering column joint and shaft. The recall also affects 18,500 Sentra sedans, which will have positive battery cable terminals replaced.
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There’s a new concern for people with hip implants from a division of Johnson & Johnson called DePuy Orthopedics, Inc. This company has recalled their ASR™ XL Acetabular System and ASR™ Hip Resurfacing System. The cause, according to news sources, is that these devices are more likely to fail within five years of implantation.
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