Earlier this month, the NHTSA began a new investigation into the electronic rotary gear shifters in Fiat Chrysler vehicles. The shifters can be found in more than one million vehicles and may have a flawed design. There have been numerous reports of cars rolling away after their drivers exited the vehicle when they believed the vehicle to be in park. In many cases, the car rolled away even when the gear was set to park.
The error is to blame in more than 25 accidents and nine injuries. Star Trek actor Anton Yelchin was killed after his 2015 Jeep Cherokee rolled backwards and pinned him to a pole in his driveway. The electronic gear shifters in question don’t actually change the gears themselves, but instead send a signal to the car to change the gear for you. This method is unlike traditional shifters, which mechanically change a gear’s configuration to the desired function. The technology has been found confusing in the past, and now there is a chance that some units are defective as well. Many people have reported their new cars are not registering being in park, despite the shifter indicating it is.
These electronic gear shifters debuted in 2013 and are used in many vehicle makes, including models from:
- Dodge
- Chrysler
- Jeep
- Jaguar
- Land Rover
Hundreds of thousands of vehicles that use these shifters have been recalled, and this is not the first time the NHTSA has launched an investigation into them. Cars with this issue were also recalled in April of this year. Fiat Chrysler’s response has been to incorporate a failsafe, meaning some cars will automatically activate the parking brake if a door is opened while the engine is running. In some cases, they’ve tried to issue software patches to achieve the same effect.
Nevertheless, these so-called roll-away accidents remain a persistent problem that will need to be addressed. Until the results of the NHTSA investigation are released, the causes of the issues may remain unclear. The one thing that is clear is that until that point, these electronic gear shifters pose a real danger. If have been hurt because your car rolled away on its own and you believe that a faulty gear mechanism is responsible for your injury, contact the Tennessee defective car shifter attorneys of Pohl & Berk, LLP. We can help you determine the liability in your case and whether or not you are eligible for compensation. Call us at 615-277-2765 to learn more.
Under the state law of Tennessee, families of the children who died in a school bus accident on Monday, November 21 can receive no more than $750,000 from the defendants. Unfortunately, 2011 amendments made to Tennessee’s tort reform law capped payouts in personal injury lawsuits against doctors and other businesses at $750,000.
That means this law is bad news for family members who will sue Warrenville-based school bus operator Durham School Services and the bus driver, Johnthony Walker, who lost control and crashed the bus into a utility pole and tree. The accident led to the death of six children, whose families can receive only that amount or less, even though the lives of children were at stake.
If you are faced with a debilitating injury due to a personal injury accident in Nashville or another area in Tennessee, enlist the legal services of our attorneys at Pohl & Berk, LLP. Call our offices today at 615-277-2765 so we can help you file the appropriate lawsuit against the people responsible for your plight.
After a fatal bus accident in Tennessee, bus driver John Walker is facing five counts of vehicular homicide, reckless endangerment, and reckless driving.
In Tennessee, vehicular homicide is the reckless killing while driving an automobile resulting from conduct creating a substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury to a person. Vehicular homicide is classified as a Class C felony, which carries with it a sentence of three to 15 years of imprisonment. However, if a driver has prior convictions for driving under the influence or vehicular assault, or if one has a BAC of .20%, the charge may increase to a Class A felony. This upgrade increases the potential sentence to a minimum of 15 years and a maximum of 60 years of imprisonment. Walker is also facing reckless endangerment charges, which constitutes reckless conduct that places or has the potential to place other people in imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury.
If you are hurt in a personal injury accident that occurred in Nashville or another area of Tennessee, press charges against the people responsible for your plight. Call our offices today at 615-277-2765 to get the help of our attorneys at Pohl & Berk, LLP.
A two-vehicle collision that occurred along Old Murfreesboro Road near Stumpy Lane in Lebanon, Tennessee on Monday, November 7 at around 11:30 a.m. resulted in the death of one woman.
The victim was identified as 40-year-old Stacey Slate.
According to preliminary investigations made by the police, a driver who was operating a truck owned by Nashville, Tennessee-based dairy company Purity Dairies tried to avoid the yellow Nissan Xterra sports utility vehicle that Slate was operating when she swerved into the wrong lane; however, the two vehicles still managed to collide head-on.
Slate was declared dead at the scene of the accident—the driver and the passenger of the Purity Dairies truck, on the other hand, sustained minor injuries and were treated at the scene by emergency medical respondents.
The thoughts of our attorneys at Pohl & Berk, LLP go out to the victim and her loved ones.
Fifty-two-year-old Ricky Escue, who allegedly hit 33-year-old bicyclist Jenn McCombs with his gold Cadillac Escalade on Friday, October 7 along 28th Avenue North in Nashville, Tennessee, was recently arrested by police authorities at the Cumberland Inn on Trinity Lane.
Preliminary investigations show that Escue was traveling at a high rate of speed when he struck the rear of McCombs’ bicycle.
According to police reports, Escue, who had four previous driving under the influence convictions, was charged with leaving the scene of a personal injury accident, cocaine possession, possession of drug paraphernalia, and driving on a revoked license. He was assigned a $12,000 bond.
A car accident victim, especially if they were only a pedestrian at the time of the accident, has been put at an inconvenience due to having an injury or illness that they otherwise would not have had. If you had been the victim of such an accident in Nashville or other areas in Tennessee, hire the legal representation of our attorneys at Pohl & Berk, LLP by calling our offices today at 615-277-2765.
Two more deaths directly linked to faulty Takata airbags have exacerbated the largest auto recall to ever transpire, with roughly 313,000 ’01–’03 Honda and Acura vehicles affected. Among the recent fatalities include a woman who succumbed to injuries sustained from a collision in Riverside County, California and a death that occurred in Malaysia. Both deaths arose from ruptured Takata airbag inflators on the driver-side. The global casualty count for Takata’s defective airbags has climbed to 14 with 11 deaths occurring in the U.S.
Nearly 100 million Takata air bag inflators have been declared to be defective. A substantial recall from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has led to the replacement of approximately 11.4 million airbags as of October 7, 2016, a number that makes up only 36 percent of the faulty airbags. About 70 million more airbags are expected to be recalled through 2019, encompassing the largest auto recall in U.S. history.
While 14 people have died because of the faulty airbags, more than 100 other injuries have been sustained by drivers of the affected vehicles. The disastrous amount of casualties and injuries brought on by the airbags has led Takata Corp. to suffer a dramatic financial decline along with plummeted stock prices.
Defectively manufactured products have the potential to cause significant injury to consumers worldwide. If you have been hurt by or sustained losses because of a faulty mechanism in your vehicle, don’t hesitate to contact Pohl & Berk, LLP at 615-277-2765 to learn about how you can recover damages for your suffering.
Brian and Megan Fox, who are residents of Nashville, Tennessee, filed a lawsuit against Amazon after the hoverboard they purchased through the website in November 2015 exploded and caught fire. The board they bought as a Christmas present for their children burned down their $1 million house and injured three of their family members on January 9, 2016.
According to the recently filed lawsuit, the fire “completely destroyed the plaintiffs’ house and virtually all of their personal belongings in a matter of minutes,” and severely injured their 16-year-old daughter and 14-year-old son. The Fox family also claimed the hoverboard’s lithium battery package was not originally manufactured by Samsung as represented on Amazon’s website. Rather, the hoverboard was a counterfeit product from China.
Our attorneys at Pohl & Berk, LLP provide legal services for our clients in Nashville and other areas of Tennessee. We handle personal injury accident cases such as product liability and premises liability, among others. Contact us at 615-277-2765 to find out more about what we can do for you.
The Morristown Police Department said last Wednesday, October 26 that they arrested Heather Williams for hitting John Paul Wayne Taylor, 6, as he was getting off the school bus. The incident occurred last Monday, October 24 around 6:05 p.m. at Lincoln Avenue near Kennedy Center.
According to preliminary investigations, Taylor walked around his stopped school bus after getting off when Williams struck him and left the scene of the accident. Taylor went to Morristown Hamblen Hospital for treatment of his injuries of an unknown nature and was back to attending Lincoln Elementary School after four days. Police investigators said Williams admitted she was texting while driving at the time of the incident. She is currently detained at the Hamblen County Jail and was assigned a $70,000 bond.
If you are facing an injury or disability after a personal injury accident caused by the negligent actions of other people in Nashville, seek the legal assistance of our attorneys at Pohl & Berk, LLP by calling our offices today at 615-277-2765.
Nashville resident Stacie Reasonover sued Apple Inc. during the third week of October after Reasonover claimed that her overheating iPhone 6 caused injuries to her right breast.
The lawsuit was filed in the Tennessee Middle District Court in Nashville with Judge Todd Campbell presiding. In her lawsuit, Reasonover said she wants to be compensated for “loss of wages and/or earning capacity” because of the scarring due to her overheating iPhone 6. Reasonover said in her lawsuit that Apple’s iPhone 6 contained a product design defect that made it unreasonably dangerous.
It is the responsibility of manufacturers to ensure that the products they put on the market are safe for public use so they are guaranteed not to cause personal injury accidents. However, if the product you purchased does not adhere to these standards and you were injured because of it, you can hire the legal services of our attorneys at Pohl & Berk, LLP in Nashville by calling our offices today at 615-277-2765.
Tire manufacturer Goodyear has been fined over $1 million over the deaths of factory employees and numerous other employee safety violations at one of its plants in Danville, Virginia.
Virginia’s Occupational Health and Safety Administration (VOSH) cited the company for four willful violations of safety policy, and 118 serious violations. These are tied to safety conditions at the plant, such as not following certain protocols and not having proper guarding outside of machinery. One man was killed on April 12th by drowning in equipment that contained boiling water and oil. Another employee sustained burn injuries while testing a tire curing press.
Goodyear has implemented a thorough safety review of its plant and is hoping to prevent future accidents and violations, but it clearly has a long road ahead of it.
Workplace safety is of paramount importance. Employers are required to maintain safety on their premises and train employees on how to avoid hazards associated with their jobs. If you have lost a loved one as a result of unsafe workplace conditions, you may be able to hold the employer accountable for your tragic loss. Call the Tennessee wrongful death attorneys of Pohl & Berk, LLP, at 615-277-2765 to learn more about your legal options.
