Allegations Of Rear Underride Guard Failure Net $462M In Truck Accident Lawsuit
A Missouri jury recently delivered a $462 million “nuclear” verdict against Wabash National after a truck accident claimed the lives of two people. According to the lawsuit, the design of the truck’s rear impact collision guard was faulty and failed to prevent the otherwise avoidable deaths of the two decedents.
The St. Louis jury awarded $6 million each to the estates of the two victims and an extra $450 million in punitive damages to punish the company for having a faulty rear underride guard. According to the lawsuit, the decedent’s Volkswagen sedan slammed into the back of a trailer manufactured by Wabash National and slid underneath the truck.
Understanding rear underride guards
Rear underride guards are a piece of technology that prevent smaller commuter vehicles from becoming “wedged” underneath semi-truck trailers when they crash into the back. When a smaller vehicle crashes into the back of a semi-truck, the underride guard prevents the vehicle from becoming crushed underneath the truck. Without a rear underride guard, the height of the semi’s trailer could easily collapse the windshield of the vehicle crushing anyone inside. In this case, that’s exactly what happened. The two decedents were crushed inside their vehicle after crashing into the back of the Wabash-manufactured rear underride guard.
According to the plaintiff’s lawsuit, Wabash used a rear impact underride guard they knew would provide inadequate protection against underride impacts. Wabash maintained that it complied with all federal safety standards and that the crash occurred at such a speed that the men inside the vehicle had no hope of surviving it. In other words, it wasn’t the failure of their underride guard that was to blame, but the speed at which the crash happened. The St. Louis jury didn’t buy that explanation.
Federal regulations and rear underride guards
All semi-trailers are required by federal law to have rear underride guards. There is no such regulation requiring side-impact underride guards. Further, there are no safety standards when it comes to stress testing rear underride guards. In this case, the plaintiffs argued that Wabash installed a defective rear underride guard on their semi-trailer and this resulted in the deaths of the decedents.
Wabash argued that their rear underride guard met all federal safety regulations and that there was nothing they could do to prevent the accident.
Impact on the industry
This nuclear verdict proves one thing. Jurors don’t care if you’re meeting federal safety standards. They care whether or not you’re employing technology that can save lives. In this case, the plaintiffs were able to successfully claim that Wabash cut corners to avoid installing more expensive underride guards on their vehicles. They also failed to crash test the underride guards at any point to ensure that they could withstand a street-grade impact. Hopefully, this will result in more logistics companies employing the best technology to prevent accidents as opposed to whatever is cheapest.
Talk to a Jacksonville, FL Truck Accident Lawyer Today
Gillette Law represents the interests of plaintiffs in personal injury lawsuits filed against trucking companies. Call our Jacksonville personal injury lawyers today to schedule a consultation, and we can begin investigating your case right away.
Source:
blog.cvn.com/breaking-462m-verdict-returned-in-trial-over-trucks-rear-impact-guard-design-watch-full-trial-via-cvn
