The Cochran Firm Legal Blog

In New Hampshire on Christmas eve of 2002 there was a crash between two cars which had been passing each other. One car was a 1999 Volkswagen Jetta containing an engaged couple returning home from a party. The driver, one Rebecca Beisswenger, passed the other car, which then sped past her in a no-passing zone where the road curved.

Beisswenger swerved and lost control of her car, which skidded off the road and flipped over onto an embankment. It then rolled over several times against the hillside and fell back onto the highway. Her fiance, one Owen Milne in the passenger seat, was thrown against the roof and the support beams holding up the roof on his side collapsed.

Milne's neck was compressed in the impact and his vertebrae were fractured. He became a quadriplegic. He sued the driver of the other car and obtained $2 million in settlement. He also obtained $300,000 from Beisswenger. After this crash they had gone ahead with their wedding plans but their marriage did not last long.

Lawsuit Claims Defective Jetta Design

He also sued Volkswagen. His suit alleges that the Jetta has faulty roofs and seatbelts. He was wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash but it evidently did not prevent his head from impacting the car's roof in the rollover. The suit claims that the Jetta is not crashworthy.

Volkswagen lawyers have responded by blaming the "cat and mouse" game the two cars were playing, and stating that the Jetta is well-designed and meets or exceeds all industry and federal government safety standards. They claim that Milne's spinal injuries happened before the roof collapsed and were caused by the momentum of his body pushing his head against the roof as the car slammed against the hillside.

The trial is scheduled to begin today and last until February 6.

If you have been injured because of a defectively-designed vehicle, we can help. Please call or email our personal injury law firm and one of our experienced defective product attorneys will be glad to give you a free consultation.