Seat and Seating System Failure Lawsuit

Seat failures occur when an occupied car seat fails by bending, breaking or collapsing during a collision. The seat should be designed to maintain an occupant in the same position of the seat as designed, not improperly deform, keeping occupants safely in their seat with the seatbelt system in its correct position. Seatback failure is a component of a failure of the entire seating system, including the seatbelt, not just the back of the car seat.

Seatback or seat bottom failure is most common during rear-end collisions and can occur at low to moderate speeds. Seatback failure can crush back seat passengers and result in occupant ejection. Both can cause severe injuries.

What injuries are associated with seatback failure?

Seat or seatback failure can cause severe, catastrophic and paralyzing injuries. Motley Rice is accepting claims for the following:

• Fatalities: Seat failure accidents can be deadly. Sadly, child injuries and deaths are common in car seat back collapse accidents because children often ride in the back seat.
• Spinal cord injuries (SCI): When a seat fails, the seat’s occupant is suddenly, and often violently, thrown around and in many cases rearward. This rearward motion can cause SCIs. Common spinal injuries from car accidents include fractures, injured discs, injured vertebrae and nerve damage.
• Paralysis: A spinal cord injury from a car accident can also result in paralysis.
• Traumatic brain injury (TBI): During a seat collapse, the collapsing seat can hit the occupant’s head or cause the occupant to be out of place and strike interior areas in the vehicle, causing injury. The collapse may also hit the person in the backseat or the backseat itself. The sudden force of any of these impacts can cause a TBI.

Several issues can cause seat failure, and many of them trace back to automaker design and manufacture negligence. Causes of seat collapse include:

• Defective seat design or weak materials: A seat's design and the materials used to construct it can determine how the seat holds up in a collision. Defective designs, engineering flaws and the use of weak materials can increase the likelihood of failure. For example, seats designed with inadequate support structures may not withstand crash forces.
• Lack of crashworthiness: Upgrading materials and adding safety features to seats can increase production costs. Unfortunately, automakers may prioritize decreasing these costs over improving vehicle crashworthiness, leading to preventable seatback failures.
• Manufacturing defects: Even when a seating system is properly designed, seatbacks can fail if they are improperly manufactured, poorly assembled, made with substandard parts or the design is modified during production and not tested.

Current seatback safety standards

Currently, seat safety standards are regulated by Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSSs). Specifically, FMVSS 207 and 210.

FMVSS 207 establishes requirements for seats, their attachment assemblies and their installation. FMVSS 210 establishes requirements for the location of seatbelt assembly anchorages. Both regulations aim to decrease the likelihood of seat system failure.

Leading authorities in the transportation industry have sounded the alarm about seatback safety since the 1960s. However, there have not been any significant changes to federal seat system standards since the mid-1970s.

In July 2024, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) began taking public comment on proposed updates to seatback safety standards. These proposed updates include new seatback strength requirements and increased seat performance testing.

Liability for a seatback collapse accident will rest with the party responsible for the seatback failure. In some cases, multiple parties can be held liable. Potentially liable parties may include:

• Automakers: Automakers may be held liable for designing, manufacturing or selling unsafe seating systems.
• Retailers or dealerships: In some product liability claims, retailers and dealerships can be held liable for selling vehicles with defective seating systems.
• Seat manufacturers: Sometimes, vehicle manufacturers outsource parts to other makers. Third-party manufacturers can be held liable for producing faulty seating systems.

Other liable parties could also be involved in the vehicle’s supply chain or testing. A Motley Rice attorney can help identify eligible plaintiffs and take action against all those at fault for a seatback failure accident.

You may be eligible to file a personal injury seat failure lawsuit if you or someone you love suffered an injury caused by a seat collapse. Eligible parties may include drivers and front seat passengers, backseat passengers and parents of injured children.

Surviving family members and estate representatives may also be eligible to take action on behalf of fatally injured parties with a wrongful death lawsuit.

If you or your loved one suffered spinal injuries caused by a car accident, paralysis after a car accident or another seat collapse injury, a Motley Rice attorney can advise you regarding your lawsuit eligibility.

What compensation is available to victims?

Victims of seatback failure accidents can seek personal injury compensation for compensatory damages and punitive damages.

• Compensatory damages: Also called “actual damages,” compensatory damages are awarded based on a victim’s losses. Compensatory damages may include medical expenses, lost wages and property damages. Compensatory damages may also include non-economic damages for a victim’s physical, mental and emotional pain and suffering.
• Punitive damages: Punitive damages are not reflective of a victim’s actual losses. Instead, the court will sometimes order a defendant to pay punitive damages as a form of punishment for especially reckless or malicious conduct.

A seatback failure lawyer with Motley Rice may be able to help you seek a spinal cord injury car accident settlement or seek compensation for any other type of seat collapse injury.

Seatback failure lawsuits can be complex. These types of cases often present unique challenges.

Seat collapse claims fall under product liability law, which can involve strict liability. With strict liability, a manufacturer can be held responsible for a defective product, even if they didn’t act negligently. These cases often hinge on proving that a product was indeed faulty.

Expert witness testimony is usually required to establish product liability. Your lawyer may engage engineers, crash reconstructionists and medical doctors to help build your case. They will also have to navigate federal laws and safety loopholes, like outdated FMVSS regulations that don’t hold automakers to a high enough standard.

Evidence shows that automakers have known about the hidden risks of seatback failure for decades. Yet they have chosen not to make improvements or warn consumers. Some companies may have tried to conceal this information from the public. Proving that manufacturers knew or should have known about the dangers of seat collapse can make these lawsuits more complex.

If you believe you suffered an injury because of a seatback failure, you should take these steps to protect your health and your rights:

• Seek immediate medical attention: If you didn’t get emergency medical treatment at the time of the crash, see a doctor about your injuries as soon as possible. Follow your physician’s orders, attend all future appointments and don’t engage in activities that could make your injury worse. Save all of your medical bills and records.
• Preserve the vehicle and seat for evidence: Do not repair your vehicle. Keep your damaged car as it is so that your legal team and the experts they engage can examine it and its seating system.
• Obtain the crash report and collect witness information: Get a copy of your crash report from your local police or sheriff’s department. This report will contain information critical to your case investigation, including the names and contact information of witnesses.
• Contact an attorney with experience in seatback failure litigation: Talk to a lawyer to discuss your potential seatback collapse case. Motley Rice attorneys have successfully handled seatback product liability lawsuits. Our case record includes a settlement with Hyundai for a client who sustained severe injuries when the seatback in her 2009 Elantra failed during a rear-end collision.

Motley Rice has extensive experience litigating for clients injured in transportation accidents. Our law firm has the skills and resources to navigate the legal, technical and regulatory challenges that these lawsuits can present. Our attorneys have handled complex product liability claims and transportation accident cases, including:

• Aviation lawsuits
• Bus passenger injury lawsuits
• Train crash lawsuits
• Truck accident lawsuits

If you or someone you love suffered injuries caused by a seat collapse, you may be eligible for a seatback failure lawsuit. A Motley Rice vehicle defect lawyer can discuss your legal options. Contact us online or call 1.800.768.4026.

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