The Cochran Firm Legal Blog

Late on May 11, on a busy city highway, a Chevrolet Tracker carrying three people on the highway swerved to avoid a refrigerator in the middle of the road. The truck did not turn around the obstacle. Instead, the vehicle tipped over and rolled, ejecting all three passengers, one of whom were killed, and two of whom were taken to a local hospital with serious injuries. Although many people contributed to this tragic car accident-the person who left the debris on the road, people who did not report the debris soon enough to have it removed, the driver who may have swerved drastically, even the passengers who were not wearing their seat belts-only one of them did so as a calm, deliberative action with a profit motive: the manufacturer of the light SUV, which had a tendency to tip.

The Chevrolet Tracker is a light SUV, and it receives marginal marks for rollover safety. According to NHTSA testing, the vehicle had a significant likelihood of tipping over during highway maneuvers. SUVs were a profitable market for many carmakers, and many were designed on truck bodies, often without considering how redistributing the weight of the vehicle would affect its stability. This led to the design and production of numerous defective and dangerous vehicles.

If you have lost someone you loved in an accident, many people may have contributed to the wrongful death, but this does not mean that automakers should be allowed to get away with producing defective cars that contributed to or worsened the effects of an accident. In states with comparative negligence, like California, automakers can be forced to pay damages for their share of responsibility. Schedule a defective automobile lawsuit consultation with the San Francisco product liability lawyers of The Cochran Firm today.

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