The surviving wife, children and parents of a 28-year-old Louisiana man killed in a crash of the International brand truck tractor he occupied are being compensated by the truck’s manufacturer.
As the truck traveled on a Texas roadway, the rig’s right front tire began leaking air, ultimately causing the low-pressure tire to fail and the truck to travel off the road, enter a ditch and roll over. The man suffered bilateral leg amputations in the crash and was having trouble breathing. He was rushed to the hospital but died from his injuries.
In the wrongful death lawsuit filed by Rob Ammons on behalf of the family of the man who was killed, it was claimed that the Navistar-designed and manufactured truck lacked a tire pressure monitoring system for its steer axle tires – a safety feature that would have alerted the truck’s users to the dangerous air leak in time to fix it and prevent the tire failure that caused the fatal accident.
According to Ammons, underinflated tires are responsible not only for offering a less than stable ride, but are also far more prone to sidewall failures than tires being run with correct air pressure. Auto manufacturers in the United States were required to include a tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) in their vehicles by 2007. While the technology and benefits of TPMS would certainly also apply to large commercial trucks, many manufacturers only offer TPMS as an option. Of course, the absence of a regulation does not relieve a manufacturer of its duty to make a truck that is as safe as is technologically and economically feasible.
Given the known risk posed by underinflated tires, the failure of Navistar to include TPMS as standard equipment on its truck tractors is inexcusable and was the cause of this young family man’s untimely and wrongful death.
The compensation being provided to the man’s survivors is in response to their claims for the loss of his love, comfort, companionship, and society, the loss of support and services he provided to the household, and for the mental anguish, they have suffered and will continue to suffer as a result of his death.
The Ammons Law Firm has a nationwide personal injury practice focusing on tire defects, truck accidents, rollovers, consumer protection and product liability, catastrophic injury, wrongful death, post-collision fires, seat belt defects, airbag defects, and plant explosions.
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