The Ammons Law Firm has successfully concluded a wrongful death case brought against Goodyear and Nissan by the parents of a 17-year-old who sustained fatal injuries in a rollover. The crash occurred when the family’s XTerra rolled over following the tread separation failure of a Goodyear tire positioned at the vehicle’s rear.
The failed tire was a Dunlop GrandtrekAT21 Rob Ammons claimed was negligently designed and manufactured by Goodyear. It was specifically alleged in the lawsuit that the tire’s components did not properly bond during its manufacture, making them susceptible to separating during regular use. Ammons also alleged that the tire had become unsafe because the rubber compounds used to make it were not properly fortified with chemicals that slow deterioration. Additionally, it was alleged in the lawsuit that the tire’s design lacked a number of safety features — a full nylon cap ply, a proper wedge, an adequate inner liner, and nylon edge strips — that would have greatly reduced the risk of failure by tread separation.
With respect to Nissan, the lawsuit cited problems in the Xterra for causing the accident and the fatal injuries to the young man. It was alleged that the Xterra was designed in a way that its handling degrades severely in the event of a rear tire disablement. Ammons claimed that the Xterra should have been equipped with a safety feature called electronic stability control (ESC) which has been proven effective in either preventing loss of control in the first place or quickly returning a vehicle to the driver’s intended path. Finally, it was claimed that the Xterra’s seat belts were not designed to couple an occupant to his seat during a rollover event, posing an unnecessary and unreasonable risk of injury. The young man in question, who was wearing his seat belt, died of head and neck injuries that, according to Ammons, could have been prevented by an effective restraint system.
Rob Ammons is Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, in addition to being Board Certified in Civil Law by the National Board of Trial Advocacy. Rob Ammons’ law practice, The Ammons Law Firm, is located in Houston, Texas.
The Ammons Law Firm’s practice is exclusively personal injury law, handling such cases as tire defects, oil rig explosions, truck accidents, plant explosions, refinery accidents, wrongful death, post-collision fires, seat belt defects, airbag defects, SUV rollovers, and workplace negligence.
