Wal-Mart Must Pay $18.9 Million For Fatal Tire-Blowout Accident

0 comments

Posted on 4th February 2013 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

, , , ,

A jury has awarded $18.9 million in damages against Wal-Mart Stores for an accident caused by a tire blowout that killed three people, according to Lawyers USA Online.

http://lawyersusaonline.com/blog/author/kristitousignant/

The panel in Maryland found Wal-Mart liable for installing a new tire on an eroded rim, which caused the fatal accident.

The three victims, a mother and her two children, were among eight people who were in a minivan that was returning from California to Maryland. The vehicle’s left rear tire had a flat when they hit Iowa, and they had a new tire put on the rim, Lawyers USA Online reported.

After a new tire was mounted on the rim, the family drove about eight hours before the tire blew out in Indiana, with Lindora Cornejo Calderon of Hyattsville, Md., and her two children killed in the accident, according to Lawyers USA Online.

Attorney’s for the three estates, as well as three others hurt in the crash, filed a negligence suit against the giant retailer and the car’s driver. The jury cleared the driver of any liability last month,

Wal-Mart’s lawyer told Lawyers USA Online that it is considering appealing the verdict.

The accident took place on Nov. 7, 2009, when the tire went flat. The group was driving east on Interstate 80 after having the new tire put on when the driver swerved to avoid something in the road, said Lawyers USA Online,

That’s when the tire blew and the driver lost control, with the vehicle rolling over several times. As a result, Vega sustained a brain injury and lost part of his right leg, according to Lawyers USA Online. Villanueva injured her  right hand in the crash.

The trial in Prince George’s County Circuit Court took nine days in January.

Plane’s Double-Tire Blowout At Sacramento Airport Under Investigation

0 comments

Posted on 28th December 2011 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

,

Federal safety officials are investigating what caused two tires of a Southwest Airlines jet to blow out at Sacramento International Airport Tuesday evening, according to The Sacramento Bee.

http://www.sacbee.com/2011/12/28/4149025/southwest-jet-aborts-takeoff-at.html

The plane, which had 130 people onboard and was bound for Seattle, had to abort its take-off when two of its tires blew out on the runway, the newspaper reported.

The Boeing 737, which was Flight 2287, was towed from the runway. Authorities at the airport told The Sacramento Bee that they had checked the runway and didn’t anything on it that might have caused the tires to blow.

The National Safety Transportation Board will be investigating the incident, as will Southwest Airlines.

An official with the Federal Aviation Administration told The Sacramento Bee that plane-tire blowouts don’t happen too often, but that they do happen. Mechanical problems in the wheels, structural failure in the tires, runway debris and a pilot applying the brakes too hard can all lead to tire blowouts, according to the FAA official.

But the Sacramento airport seems to have had more than its share. In an incident in August 2010, four tires on a JetBlue plane coming from Long Beach, Calif., blew and the brakes went on fire, The Sacramento Bee reported. The jet had a hard landing. Passengers on that flight escaped the plane using emergency slides.  

  

 

 

 

Ford Van Design Led To Tire-Blowout That Killed Six, Expert Says

0 comments

Posted on 21st September 2010 by gjohnson in Uncategorized

, , ,

The six victims of a crash last weekend, who were killed when their van blew a rear tire and rolled over repeatedly in New York, had two things going against them. One they could not control, the second they could have. 

First, an auto safety expert explained in the New York Post Monday that the van involved in the accident, a 1997 Ford Econoline, has design flaws that make it susceptible to tire blowouts. 

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/bronx/van_is_fatally_flawed_jck8jwuDaoT2x2oYHKt0AM

Byron Bloch, an expert witness in auto-safety cases, said that the 15-passenger van that members of a Queens church congregation were traveling in has “a high center of gravity, a narrow wheel base and a poor suspension system,” according to the Post. Bloch said that all creates stress on the van’s rear tires, stress that increases when the vehicle has a lot of passengers.

There were 14 members of the Joy Fellowship Christian Assembly on the van when it blew its rear tire Saturday afternoon. The van then went out of control and repeatedly flipped over on the New York Thruway near the Woodbury Commons outlet mall, killing the church’s bishop and pastor, as well as four others.

Bloch has called for Ford to redesign its van, which he deems dangerous,

Now here is something the congregation could have done, but didn’t, that could have saved lives. Many of them weren’t wearing seat belts. Seven people were thrown out of the van when it flipped. 

Block told the Post that Ford could have done something about that, too. If the Ford vans has shatterproof glass, that could have stopped passengers from being ejected from the van, according to Block.   

Now maybe Ford will address these issues. Maybe.