I was recently rearended. I was stopped they hit me going 55 mph. They did not total the jeep but the damages were around $14,000. However, my air bag did not go off, maybe because of being rearended, but my seat also broke. So after I was flung forward, when I went to fall back there was no seat to catch me. Does anyone know the law on seats during accidents? Thank you
The insurance company should fix the broken seat.
Usually if you are rear ended by someone going 55 mph, it is their fault what happens to you.
Earle
Most all seats will break in a rear ender. That's a lot of force. If you think it is a vehicle defect then you need to bring it up to NHTSA.
I think the law requires you to send a letter to the Engineering Division at DaimlerChrysler thanking them for designing a vehicle that allowed you to live through such a catastrophic accident.
Sending home made cookies, while not legally required, are always a good idea also.
If you are looking for someone with deep pockets, go sue the person who hit you.
If you are try> They did do that but now I have major spinal column issues. I just
The other driver wouldn't have the deep pockets of a car manufacturer. The OP should be asking a professional such questions.
Earle Horton proclaimed:
The other driver is going to sign all his belongings over to his in-laws muy pronto, if it was really his fault and he doesn't have enough insurance. My agent talked me into extended liability coverage, which is actually pretty cheap, but the best protection, is not ramming people from behind. The unfair part, is that if they have the money to pay you off, they also have the money to defend themselves.
Agreed, this is lawyer stuff, but the OP is also knowingly asking civilians their opinion on Usenet.
Earle
"Lon" pronounced in news:ZrydndV4Gpx67PLYnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com...
I believe that the official position taken by State and Federal Safety Laws is that it is best not to rear end other people, and that it is best not to be rear-ended yourself. More or less.
Sue the idiot who hit you, and leave Jeep out of it. You're still sucking wind because Jeep designed a vehicle that mitigated your injuries, allowing you to continue living.
My stepdad got rear-ended in his Cherokee a couple years ago by a guy going around 45. I'll have to ask him about it to refresh my memory, but his seat broke as well, and I *think* he found out later that the seats are actually designed to break at a certain point to keep it from being your neck that breaks. I'm really not sure on that one, almost hate posting that...
At any rate, if you can design ANYTHING that will withstand the onslaught of a couple tons of steel moving at 55 mph... I will give you all the money out of my wallet (not really). I'm going to go ahead and vote with the crowd on this one, be thankful that it was your seat that broke, and not your neck. No auto manufacturer in the world can boast that its cars will keep your back from hurting after you get rear-ended at 55. Seems to me it'd be kind of like getting in a fender-bender, then suing the car company because their sheet metal was "faulty" because it bent out of shape. Something's gotta give.
If you were able to live through a 55mph rear-end collision, your vehicle did its job. The only vehicles whos seats would withstand such force have wings, jet engines and US Air Force insignia.
How could you have been flung forward before you fell back in a rearend collision? According to Sir Isaac Newton, when your vehicle was suddenly hit from behind, your body would have moved backward relative to the seat.
Your memory is good. Seats are designed to break for that reason. The OP is lucky the back isn't broken, at the top....
The 'whiplash' factor is nasty though.
Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail >Wendy.
The wreck is what hurt your back, not the Jeep.
It wasn't an accident, there is no such thing. It was carelessness or recklessness on the part of the person that hit you, but no accident.
If Jeep had designed a seat that wouldn't break due to the forces of such an impact, then your body would have surely been "scrambled" by the forces at play during the event. Energy HAS to be absorbed somehow, and your body would not have survived it otherwise.
Be thankful you were in your Jeep, and sue the idiot that hit you.
And, I hope your physical problems get better.
Spdloader
You're welcome!
Spdloader
The "designed to break to prevent injury" part doesn't sound quite right. Reclining in the seat defeats the restraint system and can allow you to slip out of the belts, collide with structural members or be ejected. The seat back and head rest are supposed to cradle your head, neck and torso to keep them in alignment to prevent bone and connective tissue injury. Lastly, a seat back that fails will dump the seat occupant -- plus inertial forces -- on the passenger sitting behind that position. A random Google search turned up considerable anectodal evidence that rear seat passengers, including properly restrained children, have been killed by this type of failure.
I didn't read throughly but it appeared to me that the National Highway Traffic Safety Adminstration has design standards that specify the minimum failure specs for head restraints and seat backs. The search results were muddied by a plethora of personal injury lawyer sites.
This site is anecdotal as all getout:
-- "I defer to your plainly more vivid memories of topless women with whips....r" R. H. Draney recalls AFU in the Good Old Days.
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