Door Latch Failures

Injuries Caused by Defective Door Latch

A vehicle's door latch may seem like a tiny detail in the grand scheme of safety features, but the repercussions of a defective door latch are massive. If your door suddenly flies open during a rollover accident, you can be thrown from the vehicle and seriously injured or killed. When passengers are ejected from their vehicles at high speeds, they are more likely to suffer traumatic head, neck and spine injuries, which can leave them forever disabled, if they even survive.

In the past few decades, various auto manufacturers have recalled cars because of defective door latches. Some of these recalls have taken place only following a series of lawsuits, which aroused public attention. Most recently, a series of lawsuits against the Ford Motor Company claim that manufacturers included defective latches on several models sold between 1997 and 2002, including the Expedition, Focus, F-150 and F-250.

Even worse is that several of these lawsuits allege that the Ford Motor Company was aware of the problem beforehand, and canceled its order for additional latches. But, the plaintiffs allege, when the company realized it was more expensive to recall all those latches, they found a more lax standard that their door latches could meet-and maintained that their vehicles were safe.

All vehicle door latch systems, including the inside and outside door handles, are required by Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 206, to withstand certain pressure and keep the vehicle's door from flinging open during a typical accident. This standard requires that the door handle and latch mechanism be able to withstand 30 g's of inertial loading.

The defective door latch problem is based on the strength of the spring that holds the door handle closed. This spring controls the amount of force required to operate the handle and open the door of the vehicle. Often times, the door latch problem is the result of a weak spring, which allows openings at either a lesser force, or under fewer pounds of pressure. A weak door latch spring can allow a door that needs to remain closed during an accident, to pop open at a critical moment and expose the passengers to deadly forces.

One particular problem among a number of vehicles is the automatic lock feature. When you close the door of a vehicle that is not equipped with these electronic devices, the door latch manually engages. If your latch is strong enough, the door should remain locked during a rollover accident. But, vehicles that do have automatic locking features, drivers are not sufficiently warned that unless they engage the device once all doors are closed, the doors may fly open in an accident.

If you or a loved one has been hurt in an accident due to a defective door latch, it is your right to hold the manufacturer liable for your injuries and financial losses. Contact our qualified law firm today.