Georgia Injury Law Blog
General Motors and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have announced a set of three recalls for the new Chevrolet Camaro as well as several other models of pickup trucks and sports utility vehicles, because of auto defects.
The recalls involve a total of 43,824 vehicles. The Cadillac Escalade, Chevy Avalanche, Suburban, Tahoe, Colorado, the GMC canyon and Yukon are included in the first recall of about 27,118 cars. These vehicles have a faulty seal in the fuel control system that allows water to leak through, leading to short circuits, possible engine failures or stalling of the engine. The second recall involves 15,393 Traverse SUV’s for brake system compliance failure. The third recall involves 1,243 units of the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro. The problem relates to a positive battery cable that can wear away, causing the vehicle to stall at the least, or cause an engine fire.
All three recalls have to do with serious safety problems in these vehicles. The Camaro in particular, is a highly anticipated model that seems to have already run into safety problems. There have already been at least four reports of problems with the worn out cable in these V-8 powered cars, although none of these incidents have resulted in injuries.
Auto manufacturers are required to inform the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration when there is a possible defect. In some cases, the agency may be forced to order for a recall. In any case, these defects may either be because of a safety issue, or because of a compliance failure with an existing federal guideline for safety. For a manufacturer, it actually makes more sense to recall the vehicles at the earliest signs of trouble, rather than wait till the problem has ballooned into a national safety crisis.
Unfortunately, as Georgia product liability lawyers know only too well, many auto companies even now, seem to think only in terms of the short term damage to their reputation and poor publicity that a recall will cause. The longer they wait to recall their defective vehicles, the higher the risks that people could be injured in accidents arising out of these defects. Driver negligence is still a factor in a majority of the car accidents that take place on our roads and highways every year, but a defective component in a vehicle can also play a part in causing serious injuries.