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.

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.

After reviewing three investigations and conducting its own inquiry into the matter, federal safety regulators say they know what causes some Takata airbags to suddenly explode and send metal fragments into the cabin, according to The New York Times.  As expected, federal safety regulators say that long-term exposure to humidity and fluctuations in temperature causes the airbag’s propellant to degrade.  Over time, this degradation causes the propellant to become unstable and more likely to explode when unnecessary.

In response, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said that Takata would be required to initiate the recall of another 35 to 40 million airbags in the United States.  This new recall will raise the number of airbags that will have been recalled in the U.S. to around 64 million, making “‘the largest recall in American history,’” according to NHTSA administrator Mark Rosekind.

Though Takata eventually began to use a drying agent to better stabilize its airbag propellant, ammonium nitrate, those airbags without it still pose a risk to drivers, even if that risk may not be immediate.  Since time is a factor in the degradation of the airbag’s propellant, new vehicles equipped with a defective airbag will not become dangerous for several years.  However, every one of these airbags will eventually pose a risk, which is why every airbag without the drying agent will be replaced as part of this most recent recall.

Takata has been given until the end of 2018 to finish recalling vehicles that were equipped with its defective airbag, and until the end of 2019 to recall those newer defective airbags that were installed in other recalls that were initiated in recent years.

Swedish household products chain IKEA has announced that it will be recalling around 27 million chests and drawers because they are in danger of tipping over if not securely anchored to a wall.

Two incidents in 2014 occurred where the unstable chests tipped over and fatally injured a child.

The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission is advising people who are using IKEA’s furniture to immediately stop using IKEA’s MALM children’s chests higher than 23 ½ inches and adult chests and dressers higher than 29 ½ inches unless they are safely mounted to a wall.

Consumers are encouraged to reach out to IKEA for free wall anchoring repair kits for chests and dressers by calling their United States offices at (888) 966-4532 or logging on to www.IKEA-USA.com/saferhomestogether.

If you need an attorney to represent you in your personal injury accident case, and your accident has happened in Nashville or other areas in Tennessee, do not hesitate to acquire the legal services of our attorneys at Pohl & Berk, LLP today by calling our offices at 615-277-2765.

The NHTSA acknowledges their part in the ten-year failure to recall GM vehicles equipped with a defective ignition switch in a recently issued report, according to the Washington Post on June 5.

The report stated that important facts were withheld by GM, including changes in engineering. Despite this, the NHTSA did not investigate thoroughly enough or understand the automaker’s air bag technology well enough to identify the issue. The issue, which reports stated would have taken 57 cents to replace in each vehicle, resulted in the deaths of over 100 people and the injuries of hundreds more.

Mark Rosekind, who became the administrator for the federal safety agency six months ago, issued another report simultaneously with the critique of the agency’s work—a report on how the NHTSA will move forward from this in a constructive way. According to Rosekind, new policies are already in the works, including one that would mandate all automakers to share safety investigations that are in progress.

To effectively change the agency, however, the NHTSA would need 380 workers meant to enforce defect issues; this would require about $89 million.

The U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, who joined Rosekind in a conference call with reporters, summarized the news of the critique when he said, “Defective agencies, like defective people, need the capacity for self-reflection and to make room for self-improvement. And that is what NHTSA is doing today.”

The legal team at Pohl & Berk, LLP, holds automakers accountable when a defect has led to injury and expense. Call us at (615) 277-2765 today to begin taking action.

Trinity Industries, a U.S. guardrail manufacturing company, is under scrutiny by the Justice Department regarding their relationship with the Federal Highway Administration. The current investigation follows on the heels of federal whistle-blower trial that Trinity lost last October, in which they were found guilty of defrauding the government by failing to disclose their new guardrail model, the ET-Plus.

The redesigned models date back to 2005 and have since been installed on highways nationwide. The design changes made units more likely to jam when hit head on, causing the metal rail to skewer the vehicle, endangering the lives of drivers and passengers.

In light of this initial case, the government ordered Trinity to put the ET-Plus through a series of crash tests, with the Federal Highway Administration announcing that the new model had passed eight crash tests. Some lawmakers, however, are skeptical of the ET-Plus’ performance, claiming that the crash tests were flawed.

The current investigation is being spearheaded by the Boston offices of the FBI and the Transportation Department. While states are ultimately responsible for their highway equipment and the safety of state citizens, the Federal Highway Administration plays an important role in approving products for federal reimbursement.

The Justice Department has issued a subpoena to recover documents from the October trial, and has so far interviewed five potential witnesses to testify in the case, including one former official of the Federal Highway Administration.