GM recently has announced a big recall of almost 200,000 cars, including Chevrolets, Buicks, GMCs, Isuzus and Saabs-due to an electrical glitch which might cause the vehicle to catch fire. That’s a heck of a glitch. The recall includes Chevy’s Trailblazer EXT, GMC Envoy XL and 2006-2007 Trailblazers, Envoys, Buick Raniers, Saab 9-7x and Isuzu Ascender. GM confirms at least six fires and one injury due to this defect. It recently recalled 249,000 similiar modes for the same so called glitch which confirmed 58 reported fires and 11 injuries.
 
Following GM’s announcement, Chrysler had agreed to supposedly recall a portion of the 2.7 milliion Jeeps, prone to dangerous fires in rear-end collisions. This critical defect prompted Chrysler to back down from their defiant refusal to agree to the action initiated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration,(NITSA). However, the proposed repair, is really a band-aid approach to a more deadly design defect. It includes only installing low-cost trailer hitches, a much cheaper fix than providing fire retardant suits for the occupants of these vehicles or actually fixing the real cause of why these fires result from the most common type of vehicle collision. The entire design concept of Crashworthiness is to anticipate the real world uses that these vehicles will be confronting to make sure that the collison will not enhance or increase the risk of harm to the occupants of the vehicles that are damaged.
 
Chrysler has also only agreed to recall 1.56 million vehicles, exposing the 1.2 million other vehicle owners to hope that their vehicles won’t be rearended while their families are being transported. They may believe that maybe the vehicle owners that are not included will just buy fire extinguishers or be extra careful so they won’t get rearended.
 
The cause of these fires appears to be a defective fuel tank design prone to gasoline leaks which can result in fire after a collision.
 
50 deaths have been reported.
 
Rather than agree to the Government’s request for a recall, Chrysler has really only agreed to a limited combination of a voluntary recall and a customer service action. The trailer hitches they are intending to install on those vehicles without them supposedly have the added benefit if absorbing force when the vehicle is rearended. It probably makes more sense to use these hitches to tow a trailer with pillows or other absorbent material to provide real protection from this type of catastrophic defect.
 
Unfortunately, Chrysler and the Government were involved in a high-stakes game of chicken and the NITSA blinked, Chrysler may come out of this to be the big winner. The existing owners of these potential time bombs may end up to be the tragic users. There legal rights to sue have already been extingushed by Chrysler’s Bankruptcy and Government Bailout. Now their continued safety and protection has been seriously undermined.
 
The actions of auto defect attorneys, such as myself and many others, have held automotive manufactures accountable for their actions when vehicles have been placed on the road with serious design and manufacturing defects. When a car, truck, SUV, or other type of vehicle fails to handle or respond while being operated as it was intended and anticipated to be driven the results can be terrible. These vehicles are used to transport precious cargo, families, who rely on the safety of the vehicles they are in not to experience serious problems then involved in forseeable accident. Seat belts, air bags and other saftey measures don’t offer any protection if your gas tank explodes.
 
Photo Credits: inajeep, Flickr.