Question

¨Five-year-old Cheyenne Stark was riding in the back seat of her parents’ Ford Taurus. Cheyenne was using a seatbelt designed by Ford with the shoulder belt behind her back. The car was involved in a collision. As a result, Cheyenne suffered a spinal cord injury and was paralyzed from the waist down. The family filed a suit against Ford Motor Co., alleging that the seatbelt was defectively designed.

- Is the Starks’ suit likely to be successful? Why or why not?

Answer 1

First of all, five years old Cheyenne Stark was riding in the back seat of her parents’ ford Taurus. Here, the car was in a collision, though Cheyenne was using a seatbelt, however, Cheyenne suffered a spinal cord injury and was paralyzed from the waist down. Here, seat belts have high level of importance, as it can save life of passengers travelling in the car. Further, due to defective seat belts, many road accidents can’t be survived. So,, in such situation, if the family allege that seatbelts was defectively designed, it should be reviewed as per order of court, as a result, we can establish liability of the manufacturers like ford, assess the value of damage happened. It also should be checked that whether, manufacturer violated any safety standards, design standards, skipped any important parts of producing, advertising, sharing information regarding the products. Here, the family can sue and file a suit against Ford Motor Co.; success of the suit depends on independent evaluation of the entire case and violation happened within it.

So, we can conclude that Family definitely can file the suit as there was probable issue of defective seat belts. That can cover injuries, damages, losses that took place in the car accident. It might be successful if the suit is filed and mostly depending on the assessment of such suit.