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April 01, 2006
DAIMLERCHRYSLER LIABLE IN BRAKE SHIFT INTERLOCK SUIT
A Federal jury in Atlanta, Georgia reportedly has ordered DaimlerChrysler to pay a total of $3.4 million for failing to warn of children shifting its minivans out of park, causing them to roll, and for failing to warn that its minivans did not have a brake shift interlock, which prevents vehicles from being shifted out of park without depressing the brake pedal. The case involved a two and a half year old girl who was killed when she inadvertently pulled the gear shift lever on her mother's 1991 Dodge Caravan out of park causing it to roll. The child was ejected and run over by the minivan.
According to attorneys for the child’s family, evidence in the case showed that before 2001, when DaimlerChrysler implemented the brake shift interlock in its minivans, DaimlerChrysler knew of almost two hundred child shifting incidents causing injuries and death to parents and children in vehicles which lacked the brake shift interlock. When DaimlerChrysler implemented the brake shift interlock in 2001 the incidents of child shifting in Chrysler vehicles was reduced to zero.
Posted by MVHAP at April 1, 2006 04:07 PM