Ford Motor Company has recalled nearly 365,000 F-150 pickup trucks (the country's best selling vehicle) because of a defect (every bit as dangerous as a tire defect) in its door handles that can allow the doors to open during a crash.
More on the Ford F-150 door handle recall:
Ford recalling 365,000 F-150 pickups [Chris Woodyard at USA Today]
Ford Recalls 280,000 Pickups [Jeff Bennett at WSJ]
Ford recalls F-150 pickups to fix door problem [Starwatch consumer via Kansas City Star]
Ford recalling F-150 pickups to fix door handles [Ken Thomas at AP via Yahoo!News]
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) found that a spring int he interior door handle can break and prevent the door from latching properly. If struck in a crash, the door latch could open.
The report from USA Today makes a disturbing statement, calling Ford's door latch defect "a fairly minor problem." Not true. Ford's door latch problem permits a driver or occupant to be ejected from an otherwise minor or survivable crash. According to 2002 NHTSA statistics, a vehicle occupant is 4 times more like to die and 14 times more likely to suffer spinal injury if ejected from a vehicle. Ford's door latch defect is a very serious safety problem.
Ford's recall repairs are expected to begin around February 14, 2011 when Ford dealers will inspect the recalled F-150 pickup trucks and add reinforcements to the spring or replace the door handle module completely.
Ford needs to do whatever it takes to make sure its drivers and occupants are safety restrained inside the vehicle during an accident or crash.
(c) Copyright 2011 Brett A. Emison
Brett Emison is currently a partner at Langdon & Emison, a firm dedicated to helping injured victims across the country from their primary office near Kansas City. Mainly focusing on catastrophic injury and death cases as well as complex mass tort and dangerous drug cases, Mr. Emison often deals with automotive defects, automobile crashes, railroad crossing accidents (train accidents), trucking accidents, dangerous and defective drugs, defective medical devices.
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