| "Seat back failure" is a life-threatening defect in many | | | | Safety Administration (NHTSA) 30-mph rear impact |
| automobiles that cause numerous injuries and deaths | | | | crash tests (FMVSS 301). The hazard of seat back |
| each year. There are estimates that in 1990 there | | | | failure originates from the inadequate Federal Motor |
| were 1,100 fatalities and 1,600 serious injuries due to | | | | Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) 207 - Seating |
| seat collapses in rear-ended collisions. These injuries | | | | Systems. This current standard has not been |
| could have been prevented had the seat backs been | | | | updated in over thirty years. It requires that a seat |
| designs been replaced with proven safety measures | | | | must withstand a pull of 3,300 inch-pounds applied |
| that have been readily available for decades. | | | | about the seat back in a rearward direction. |
| The underlying problem is that the national safety | | | | The NHTSA has been petitioned numerous times to |
| standard does not require adequate seat strength | | | | strengthen its existing standard. They have received |
| and many manufacturers would rather install cheaper, | | | | complaints of seat backs collapsing in more that two |
| more dangerous seats in the lower priced lines of | | | | dozen different cars, including models made by all of |
| their cars and trucks than the more expensive, safer | | | | the American automobile manufacturers. The |
| seats. Every American automobile manufacture has | | | | standard is so inadequate that the majority of the |
| had complaints regarding seat back failure. | | | | petitioners are asking for an increase at least 6-fold. |
| Seat backs fail under various circumstances. | | | | That would increase the pull that a seat must |
| However, the ultimate cause of these failures is the | | | | withstand from 3,300 inch-pounds to about a 20,000 |
| rearward collapse of the seat back by an occupant's | | | | inch-pounds. |
| body mass. Some seat backs fail due to the relative | | | | Ford Motor Company has been aware of dangerous |
| acceleration of this mass during a collision, whereas | | | | seats for over 30 years. This deadly problem was |
| others fail under the weight of the occupant while | | | | investigated by Ford in 1992, and the outcome was |
| the vehicle is either stationary or traveling at a | | | | that the seats cause serious harm in the event of |
| constant velocity. | | | | rear-end collisions. The Ford Motor Company did not |
| The two most common types of collapse are the | | | | make any design changes to combat the seriousness |
| failure of the seat back support system to maintain | | | | of the seat back failure. |
| an upright position and the deformation of the seat | | | | Bisnar|Chase represented a mother of a seven year |
| back frame itself. Failures that have been attributed | | | | old girl who died as the result of a seat back failure. |
| to deformation of the mounting system that holds | | | | The plaintiff and her daughter were rear-ended at 25 |
| the seat to the vehicle floor or to a collapse of the | | | | miles per hour while in a Ford Escort. As a result of |
| vehicle floor pan are less common. Another problem | | | | the faulty seats, the mother's head struck the |
| is the detachment of adjustable head restraints | | | | daughter in the chest, causing the daughter's heart to |
| during an accident. | | | | rupture, as well as internal bleeding. The young girl |
| When a vehicle is impacted from the rear, the forces | | | | died one day later. |
| of the impact propel the vehicle forward and the | | | | In 2000, another Ford Escort was in a rear-end |
| occupants are thrown backwards. The seat back | | | | accident that caused a man's death. When the Ford |
| should be able to keep the vehicle's occupants safe | | | | Escort was rear-ended, the driver's seat collapsed |
| by keeping the individual from ejection, and from | | | | backward, hurling him into the rear of the car's cabin. |
| striking interior components or other passengers. If | | | | The man was fatally injured by the impact of the |
| designed properly, the seat back should keep the | | | | car's rigid interior. |
| occupant in a secured upright position. When a | | | | The Ford Explorer is another Ford model that has |
| seatback collapses rearward in an accident, many | | | | had a history of seat back collapse injuries. Our client |
| serious conditions arise: | | | | was in a rear end accident when her seat collapsed |
| - The driver can lose control of the vehicle if unable | | | | backward ejecting her into the back of the vehicle. |
| to sit upright while the vehicle is in motion, causing | | | | The impact severed her spinal cord and left her a |
| multiple collisions and further injury | | | | paraplegic. |
| - Partial or complete ejection from the vehicle, when | | | | Virtually every front seat produced by General |
| the occupant has slid out from under the seat belt | | | | Motors Corporation (GM) from 1970 to the mid |
| - Interior impacts, by the occupant into the interior | | | | 1990's was designed to collapse rearward in an |
| structures of the vehicle or into the other occupants | | | | impact in which there was a speed change of 15 |
| - A front seat collapsing can cause serious injury or | | | | miles per hour or greater. According to documents |
| death to the rear seat occupants trapped underneath | | | | obtained by CBS for its series on seats collapsing in |
| the collapsed seat back | | | | rear-end collision, in 1992, GM attorneys advised top |
| - Blocking of the exits, in the event that that a | | | | executives that there standard seats could no longer |
| ruptured fuel system has caused a fire | | | | be defended. |
| There can be catastrophic results of seat back | | | | GM knew, as early as 1966, that seat strength is |
| failure. Injuries to occupants of collapsing seats often | | | | directly related to occupant safety in a rear impact |
| include devastating or fatal head and spinal cord | | | | collision. They have known that the occupant survival |
| injuries. These injuries occur when the occupant's | | | | depends largely upon a front seat structure that |
| seat collapses and allows the occupant to strike the | | | | holds the passenger in an upright position, yet, they |
| rear seat or the b-pillar in the back seat. Injuries to | | | | have not upgraded there seats. A leading GM |
| the occupants behind collapsing seats often occur | | | | engineer, David C. Viano, in a 1994 internal GM study, |
| when the occupant of the collapsing seat strikes the | | | | projected that 376 to 470 lives could be saved each |
| passenger seated directly behind the collapsing front | | | | year and estimated that improvements would |
| seat. The contact between the two occupants often | | | | prevent 1,000 serious injuries each year in rear-end |
| results in fatal or devastating head or chest injuries. | | | | collisions if the company strengthened its seat backs. |
| The safety standards for automobile seats are | | | | DaimlerChrysler has been known to have seats |
| viewed as being too lenient and not updated to | | | | collapse as well. In 2001, a mother, one of our clients, |
| protect vehicle occupants form injuries otherwise | | | | was driving one of the manufacturer's minivans and |
| avoidable. Automobile seats are only required to pass | | | | was ejected from her seat during a crash due to a |
| a strength requirement. They are not required to go | | | | seat back collapse. The collapsed seat caused the |
| through a crash test rating system even though seat | | | | mother to fatally strike her 8-month old child, who |
| backs regularly fail during National Highway Traffic | | | | was in a car seat behind her. |