Teenager Zachary Duncan's parents filed a personal injury lawsuit on his behalf against Hyundai after he crashed his 2008 Hyundai Tiburon on February 27, 2010. During the wreck, the side air bags failed to deploy, and thus failed to prevent Duncan’s severe brain injuries, which left him in a coma for almost a week.
The team of attorneys representing the Duncans successfully argued that the air bag sensors on Tiburon models released between 2003 and 2008 are flawed, and unable to detect when they should be deployed.
According to the family’s personal injury lawyer, Duncan’s head hit the support beam in the roof of the car when his Hyundai struck the tree. If the side air bag had not had a faulty sensor, the attorneys argued, Duncan’s head would not have hit the interior of the car in a way that caused such horrendous injuries.
After Duncan’s attorneys made their argument, the jury deliberated for nearly 10 hours before determining Hyundai had made a car that was “unreasonably dangerous.” In legal terms, the jury found that Hyundai had breached the implied warranty of merchantability, which is sometimes the threshold plaintiffs must meet in defective product lawsuits.
In the words of the family’s attorney, if "you put an old, antiquated technology in a car and someone gets hurt, you have to pay for it."
Chris Gansen is an attorney practicing personal injury and trial law in Los Angeles, CA. He specializes in catastrophic injury cases and products liability. You can find him on Twitter @thegansen or on his law firm's web site, www.gansenlawgroup.com and LaAutoLaw.com.
The team of attorneys representing the Duncans successfully argued that the air bag sensors on Tiburon models released between 2003 and 2008 are flawed, and unable to detect when they should be deployed.According to the family’s personal injury lawyer, Duncan’s head hit the support beam in the roof of the car when his Hyundai struck the tree. If the side air bag had not had a faulty sensor, the attorneys argued, Duncan’s head would not have hit the interior of the car in a way that caused such horrendous injuries.
After Duncan’s attorneys made their argument, the jury deliberated for nearly 10 hours before determining Hyundai had made a car that was “unreasonably dangerous.” In legal terms, the jury found that Hyundai had breached the implied warranty of merchantability, which is sometimes the threshold plaintiffs must meet in defective product lawsuits.
In the words of the family’s attorney, if "you put an old, antiquated technology in a car and someone gets hurt, you have to pay for it."
Chris Gansen is an attorney practicing personal injury and trial law in Los Angeles, CA. He specializes in catastrophic injury cases and products liability. You can find him on Twitter @thegansen or on his law firm's web site, www.gansenlawgroup.com and LaAutoLaw.com.
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