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Dealers Sell Salvaged Vehicles with Defective Car Parts
April 28, 2008

A new report in the Public Citizen warns of hundreds, if not thousands of accidents that could be just waiting to happen on our country's streets and highways. Unscrupulous dealers are passing off totaled junk with serious auto defects onto unsuspecting customers as second hand cars. The poor shape these cars and trucks are in, the presence of serious auto defects and the lack of safety mechanisms in these vehicles make them prone to dangerous accidents on the roads, and the owners aren't even aware of the problem.

This sale of potentially harmful vehicles has been happening all over the country for a while now. Dealers get hold of vehicles that have been damaged in fires and floods, or have been stolen, and are in a state of disrepair and riddled with auto defects. These vehicles are then given a makeover to look pleasing and new enough to prospective buyers. When the buyer falls for the bait, the buyer has no idea the car has been ravaged by a crash or a fire or flood. The only inkling they have that they have been scammed is when the vehicle begins to spend more time at the service center than on the road. Even then, there is no reason to suspect a scam - until it's time to sell the car. It's only then that the truth comes out.

The list of car defects that these salvaged cars have is long and extensive. Headlights don't work, and seat belts are defective. Plus, there are the many hidden safety car defects that are hidden inside the engine. With the kind of cosmetic alteration that these salvaged cars receive, it's safe to assume that the core of the vehicle is damaged, and unsafe for use on the streets.

The depth of deception and the dangers arising from this are shocking. One Illinois couple took their second hand car to the service center after the husband was involved in a minor accident. Imagine their shock when the service technicians told them that their so-called used car was not even a single car - it was made by welding the bodies of two separate cars! The husband was very lucky to be alive - in a car like that and in an accident, the chances of the body of the vehicle disintegrating are very high.

It's this callous disregard for safety of citizens and the government's apathy in dealing with unscrupulous practices that have led to citizen's rights groups fuming. In 1992, the government approved the setting up of a national database that would make information available to second-hand car buyers about the origins and the background of the car they were considering buying, which would alert them to the prospect of car defects. This would help people make informed choices, it was believed. It's been more than a decade later, and the government has not moved further ahead on the matter. The Justice Department keeps promising to proceed on the subject, but so far there has been no funding made available for the setting up of the database.

This lack of inaction by the government is baffling. In the meantime, we wonder how many cars with defective safety belts, malfunctioning brakes and other such car defects are out on the streets right now.

If you have been injured as the result of a defective car part, you need the help of an experienced California personal injury lawyer. Contact an attorney at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

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Jury Awards $5 Million to Family of Baby Killed in Jeep Grand Cherokee Accident
April 15, 2008

For 8 years, August Guillot has carried a horrible guilt in his heart - that he might have unknowingly caused the death of his then unborn child. Now, a jury in Chalmette, Louisiana has given the father the news he had been hoping to hear - that Chrysler, the company that manufactured the SUV that killed his child, was to blame for the accident.

In May 1999, August was getting ready to drive his wife Juli to the hospital. Juli was due to give birth to their son. Their three-year-old daughter Madison was strapped into the car seat. Juli suddenly remembered she had to go back into the house to pick up something, and got out of the Jeep. August meanwhile set the SUV in park, and got out to retrieve his cell phone from the back seat. At that point, just a few seconds after August had stepped out of the Cherokee, the vehicle suddenly power reversed. It pinned Juli against a brick pillar.

The trauma of the accident was severe enough to rupture Juli's uterus and push the baby into her abdominal cavity. She was rushed for an emergency C -section and the baby boy, named Colin, was delivered. He had suffered extensive brain injures, and had suffered from lack of oxygen during the time that his mother had been pinned between the car and the pillar. Colin was taken off life support two-and-a-half-weeks after he was born.

At the time, August believed that he had been responsible for the horrible tragedy. He believed that he had gotten out of the Jeep after putting it in reverse, and not in park. How else, he figured, could the vehicle have suddenly gone into reverse? The local sheriff's office investigated him for criminal negligence. A grand jury, however, declined to bring a negligent homicide charge against him.

Chrysler sent an investigator of its own to look into the causes of the tragedy. It now appears that the company had been aware of a defect in its transmission that caused the vehicle to move from park to reverse automatically. The company did not inform Guillot nor law enforcement agencies about this defect.

Unaware of all this, August continued to blame himself for his son's death. That is until a Los Angeles Times reporter who was investigating Chrysler vehicle defects got in touch with him to inform him that another such "roll back" had occurred with another Jeep Grand Cherokee vehicle earlier.

The couple filed a lawsuit against Chrysler, alleging that the company had denied hundreds of complaints with its vehicle. The jury has come back with a $5 million verdict against the company for the death of Colin Guillot, injuries suffered by Juli, August and Madison.

At the trial, it came to light that at least 200 complaints had been received regarding the problem, but the company had not seen fit to warn drivers. Had the defect been rectified much earlier, it's possible the Guillots today would have remained a family of four.

If you or a loved one have been injured or killed due to a defective car part on a dangerous SUV model, you need the help of an experienced California personal injury attorney. Contact a lawyer at The Reeves Law Group for a free consultation.

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