General Motors Pays in Case of Brain Injured Woman

The Ammons Law Firm has successfully negotiated the settlement of a crashworthiness product liability case against General Motors on behalf of a 49-year-old Texas woman who sustained a traumatic brain injury when the 2002 Pontiac Sunfire she was driving was struck from behind.

In the lawsuit, it was alleged that the driver’s seatback collapsed when its single-recliner mechanism failed in the collision, launching the woman toward the rear of the vehicle and causing her to sustain a traumatic brain injury. Plaintiff contended that an automaker must manufacture its vehicles in such a way that, when a crash occurs, injuries to the people inside the vehicle are minimized to the extent practical. Because General Motors failed to do so with respect to the Sunfire’s design — by providing a strong dual-recliner mechanism that would prevent seatback collapse — the injured woman has been left with permanent cognitive deficits.

“The performance of seating systems in crashes is crucial in providing for proper occupant restraint and injury prevention. GM vehicles have a decidedly unaccomplished history of seating system failures, one that predated and even prompted internal investigations well before the Sunfire in question was designed and manufactured. It was GM’s unwillingness to timely correct the problem that made this lawsuit on behalf of my client necessary,” said Plaintiff’s attorney Rob Ammons.

The amount of the settlement is confidential at GM’s insistence.

The Ammons Law Firm is located in Houston, Texas, and practices personal injury law, including cases involving: tire defects, oil rig explosions, truck accidents, plant explosions, refinery accidents, wrongful death, post-collision fires, seat belt defects, seatback defects, airbag defects, SUV rollovers and workplace negligence.