By: Darrell Castle
Recently an undercover story from ABC News uncovered a New Jersey dealership selling a vehicle without fixing an open recall that allowed the vehicle to roll away while in neutral. It is currently against federal law for a dealership to sell a vehicle with a potential safety defect — including those under recall — until they have remedied the problem. However, this is happening across the nation as the dealerships face increasing pressure to liquidate inventories and move sales numbers.
In fact, the ABC News investigation reached out only to discover and confirm that several hundred vehicles from various automakers were sold with open recalls at over 100 dealerships across the United States. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) — which is the government agency responsible for policing new car dealers on open safety recalls — fined only two dealerships in 2014 for not adhering to federal law, stating they weren’t aware of others in violation. However, the investigation proves this problem has a much broader reach.
Faulty vehicles don’t just affect you and your property. Without proper action, these recalls have led to dangerous accidents and have been responsible for the death of numerous victims, including the most recent GM Ignition switch recall. This was responsible for as many as 70 deaths and nearly 4,000 total injury claims.
Is your vehicle under recall?
According to financial advisory firm Stout, Risius and Ross, an estimated 46 million vehicles are on the road with recall issues that still haven’t been repaired. The failure to repair these recalls — ranging from faulty air bags to switch ignition fires — can result in serious damage to you, your loved ones and property.
While the firm did discover that the federal government is getting better at determining when there is a problem and getting automakers to take action, this means that we will likely see even more recalls as a result in 2015.
If you’ve purchased a vehicle recently, it’s important to check with your manufacturer to determine if any active recalls are open on your vehicle and to take care of them. If this recall stems from before you purchased the vehicle, the dealership is at fault and you may be entitled to take action for their reckless endangerment. The NHTSA site also has a complete list of recalls where you can check the status of your vehicle by VIN number.
Memphis Auto Accidents
Recalls can play a major factor in personal injury cases. Have you or your loved ones been subject to undue personal injury in Memphis due to an auto recall that could have been avoided? If you have been injured in a car accident due to the other driver’s recall negligence, our personal injury attorneys can help. Our team has worked for over 30 years to provide quality personal injury assistance, including car accident cases of all sizes. If it becomes necessary to pursue a lawsuit, a car accident lawyer Memphis, TN community members rely on from Darrell Castle & Associates can help.
In addition to our quality of work, we’ll treat you like a real person and fight to get you the compensation you’re entitled to. This is one of the many reasons we’ve received multiple Client Distinction Awards from Martindale-Hubbell for client satisfaction. We only get paid when YOU get paid.
Call (901) 327-1212 for a FREE case evaluation, or fill out the form on this page to have someone from our office contact YOU.