UNINTENDED ACCELERATION BLAMED FOR DEADLY CRASH

Back in May of 2013, a deadly crash took place on the Westminster Highway, drawing eight different vehicles into the wreck. Recently, a pair of lawsuits were started with regard to that crash, and the suits claim that unintended acceleration is what caused the wreck and the subsequent death.

The suits were started by a female driver from Vancouver and her passenger. Both were in a 2007 Aston Martin DB9.

Specifically, the suit says that the powerful sports car started accelerating with the throttle opened all the way up, and then, when the driver tried to pump the brakes to get the vehicle to slow down — the DB9 uses vacuum-assist power brakes — those brakes failed. The suit says that the car should have had a brake-throttle override system, which similar vehicles had been using for roughly seven years, but that it didn’t have one.

Since the car wouldn’t slow down, it kept speeding up until it was going around 220 kilometers per hour. At that speed, it plowed into a Mercedes SUV. Despite being in a rear-end collision, the driver in that SUV was killed. The passenger in the Aston Martin suffered many different injuries, including multiple fractures and a brain injury, and she still has trouble walking to this day, after having multiple surgeries.

When a malfunction causes serious injuries, or when a product has a design flaw that leads to these injuries, the company that makes the product will sometimes be liable. Anyone who has lost a loved one as a result should know what legal options are available.

Source: Richmond Review, “Lawsuit claims deadly crash caused by ‘unintended acceleration’,” Martin van den Hemel, May. 08, 2015