Whether you are wearing a seat belt or not is one of the single biggest factors in determining whether you are able to survive in the event that you are in a traffic accident. Of course, in order for a seat belt to be effective at saving your life or preventing auto accident injuries, the seat belt needs to work correctly.

Unfortunately, the seat belts in many Toyota vehicles may not provide motorists with the protection that they deserve and expect. Because of problems with seat belts in certain vehicles, Toyota has recently announced that it will be recalling as many as 342,000 pickup trucks. Our Boston defective vehicle lawyers know that Toyota has initiated the recall to help prevent injuries, which the car company could potentially become liable for if someone is in a crash and the seat belt fails to work.

Toyota Recalls Pickup Trucks Because of Seatbelt Problems

MSN Autos reported on the Toyota recall early this August, alerting motorists to Toyota’s decision to take pickup trucks with faulty seatbelts off the roads.

The 342,000 vehicles that Toyota is recalling include Tacoma pickup trucks that were manufactured from 2004 to 2011.  MSN Auto reports that pickups with Access Cabs that were manufactured during this time period have screws that could be faulty. The screws attach the seatbelt pre-tensioners to the driver and front passenger seatbelt mechanisms, which are mounted on the truck’s rear doors.

If the rear doors of the pickup are opened and closed “repeatedly and forcefully,” the screws can become lose over time. As a result, the seat belts could detach and thus not protect motorists from flying through the windshield, ejecting from the vehicle, or otherwise sustaining injuries due to being unsecured in the event of a crash.  The pre-tensioners job is to cinch the seatbelt tightly when the car senses an impact, and of course the pre-tensioners will also not serve this function when the screws have become damaged.

This new recall is not the first time that Toyota has been forced to take a car off the market because of seatbelt problems. In March, the car company also recalled 209,000 FJ Cruiser SUVs because of a potential that the seatbelts would detach due to cracks in the rear door panel.

With all of these Toyota cars with dangerous seatbelts, motorists could be seriously hurt if they were involved in a crash and something went wrong.   Car companies are expected to provide reasonably safe vehicles that work as intended, which means that the seat belts need to work too.  If a motorist were to be involved in an accident and sustain injuries (or be injured more severely) because a problem with the seatbelt, Toyota could potentially be held legally liable in a product liability claim.  There is no requirement to prove the car company was negligent in order to win such a claim, but injured victims would need to show that the detached seat belt was the direct cause of harm they endured.

If you’ve been hurt, call 1-800-WIN-WIN-1 for a free consultation with a personal injury lawyer at the Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone.

Recently, the Governors Highway Safety Association announced that five states throughout the United States have been awarded grant funding from the “Ford Driving Skills for Life” (FDSL) program. FDSL has provided a total of $100,000 in funding to programs in eligible states that are designed to prevent teen driving accidents.

Our Boston accident lawyers know that Massachusetts is one of the states that has received grant money this year. The grant money is intended to support initiatives that can make a real difference in reducing teen car accident deaths.

Teens consistently make more auto accident insurance claims due to crashes each year and car accidents have persistently remained a top cause of teen deaths.  The summer is especially deadly for teens, with the period from Memorial Day to Labor Day known as the 100 Deadliest Days. Hopefully, initiatives supported by the FDSL grant program will help to reduce these fatalities and make young people safer on the roads.

Grants Provided for Massachusetts Program to Fight Distracted Driving

Each of the grants provided by the Ford Motor Company Fund is worth $20,000 and the money is to be spent on teen driving related activities. Members may apply for the grant and a panel consisting of representatives from both Ford and GHSA review the applications to determine which programs to support.

This year, one of the programs chosen is called “No Distractions- Just Drive!” The program was launched by the Massachusetts Office of Public Safety and Security, Highway Division and first began in 2011. It is a successful program that incorporates different elements of the Ford Driving Skills for Life lesson plan.

For example, the program offers young drivers and their parents the chance to get behind the wheel with a professional driving instructor. The driving instructor will teach crash avoidance techniques and will also teach teens how to best control their vehicles while focusing on minimizing distractions. In general, when an activity in the car takes more than two seconds to complete, this activity can be a distraction that takes the teen’s attention off the road and increases the chances of a crash happening. By learning to better control their cars to avoid becoming distracted, teens can be safer behind the road.

Hopefully, these driving events will make a real difference in reducing crashes. Other projects supported by the FDSL program also aim to make the roads safer for teen drivers as well, and will hopefully be equally effective. For example, in Maine, a teen safe driving contest will be held by Maine’s top teen radio station. In Mississippi, DREAM, Inc. and the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety will host a highway safety day in October including a series of activities such as a DSFL Game Show and a Rock the Seat Belt Event. Finally, in Utah, the Highway Safety Office will use the grant money to expand its efforts to prepare teens for safe driving conditions.

While these are all different approaches to making teens safer, all have the important goal of teaching young people to make smarter driving choices and to be better equipped to handle driving situations that they may encounter on the roads.

If you’ve been hurt, call 1-800-WIN-WIN-1 for a free consultation with a personal injury lawyer at the Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone.