In April, the parents of an Ontario man who died in a 2012 auto accident at the age of 22 lent their voices to a class action lawsuit. They joined numerous others in suing General Motors Canada over the way that the American automaker dealt with recall notices that ultimately affected 1.6 million vehicles across the globe and more than 230,000 in Canada alone. Reports did not say whether all of the lawsuits were related to fatal motor vehicle accidents or personal injury accidents.
According to the couple’s lawsuit, their son’s accident occurred when the airbag in his 2006 Saturn Ion failed to deploy following a head-on collision. Although reports did not confirm what caused the malfunction, the man’s surviving family believes that it had something to do with the mass GM recall; they accused the vehicle manufacturer of knowing about the problem prior to the accident yet failing to take the appropriate actions needed to correct it and prevent their loss.
The couple also said that they received a recall notice for the affected vehicle approximately a year and a half following the fatality. Sources noted that theirs was no less than the third class action litigation brought against GM Canada; others were filed during the previous month in Ontario, Saskatchewan and Quebec.
Vehicle accidents that lead to injuries or deaths could have far-reaching legal implications. Victims may benefit from initiating legal actions similar to those taken by others in similar situations. For accidents that were caused by vehicle defects, the exact causes of the accidents may not be known until long after the statute of limitations, which is why some choose to join class-action lawsuits.
Source: The Huffington Post Canada, “GM Canada Sued: Automaker Recalled Car 18 Months After Fatal Crash“, April 11, 2014
