2007 Q3 Vehicle Safety Press Articles

Guelph Mercury, "One killed in fiery crash of Kia Sportage"

        One person is dead and four more have been taken to hospital with serious injuries after a four-vehicle crash yesterday evening. More...

The Lexington Herald Leader (KY), "Nicholasville mourns deaths of 3 children in Kia Sedona fire"

          After the thunderous crash of a van on Watts Mill Road shook their house, Chuck and Lisa Evans heard whimpering and crying. They found a young girl outside the van and a boy lying on the ground. Chuck Evans beat back a fire in the Kia Sedona with a home fire extinguisher, but the fire raged up and "swept through the van like a tornado," he said recalling the horrific scene Tuesday night south of Nicholasville that left three children dead. More...

The Post-Standard (NY), "Kia Sportage fire kills 2 children; faulty muffler suspected"

          Investigators believe holes in the top of a muffler ignited the floorboard and interior of a vehicle Tuesday on Interstate 86 in the town of Erwin, Steuben County, killing a 4-week-old infant and her 18-month-old sister, the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle reports. More...

Star-Gazette (NY), "Muffler eyed in fatal I-86 Kia Sportage fire"

          Investigators believe holes in the top of a muffler ignited the floorboard and interior of a vehicle on Interstate 86 in the town of Erwin on Tuesday, killing a 4-week-old infant and her 18-month-old sister. The infant, Sinaya Beam, and her sister, 18-month-old Izzybella Beam, both died in a fire that broke out in the back seat area of the 1999 Kia Sportage driven by their mother, 25-year-old Melissa Johns of Savona. More...

CNN, "Ford recalling millions of vehicles because of faulty switches"

          Two years after his wife of 34 years died in a fire, an Iowa man continues to maintain the blaze was started by a faulty cruise control switch under the hood of her 1996 Ford F-150 pickup -- while it was parked in the garage attached to his home. Although Ford has denied -- and continues to deny -- the switch started the fire that killed 74-year-old Dolly Mohlis in 2005, the company recently settled a lawsuit brought against it by Earl Mohlis. And last week, it issued a recall of an estimated 3.6 million vehicles -- bringing the total recalled over the past decade to more than 10 million -- every single car and truck built with a similar cruise control switch. More...

        When 22-year-old Payton Lewis and his girlfriend Samantha Ely died in a fiery single-vehicle accident Dec. 9, 2006, questions were raised regarding the cause of the crash. More...

St. Petersburg Times, "Local officials have seen the damage faulty Ford cruise control switches can do"

          Pasco County fire investigator Don Campbell started noticing the problem about two years ago. The engines inside Ford sport utility vehicles and F-150 pickup trucks would mysteriously catch fire and burn, nearly always when the vehicle was parked and hadn't been driven in several hours. Campbell instantly made a connection. In January, 2005, Ford Motor Co. had begun a recall of nearly 6-million cars, trucks, SUVs and vans because of engine fires linked to faulty cruise-control switches. More...

MSNBC.com, "Importer recalls 255,000 Chinese-made tires; Defective because lack a safety feature that prevents tread separation"

          A tire importer said Thursday it would recall 255,000 Chinese-made tires it claims were defective because they lack a safety feature that prevents tread separation. The recall involves half the number of tires that the importer, Foreign Tire Sales Inc., had identified in June as possibly posing a risk. More...

My58.com, "1 Killed In I-5 Wreck Near Zamora; Many Others Injured In Rollover Crash"

          One person died and seven others were injured early Tuesday when a Fresno-area family's sport utility vehicle rolled over along Interstate 5 near the Yolo County town of Zamora, the California Highway Patrol said. Authorities said a Ford Expedition carrying eight people crashed shortly before 1 a.m. More...

ConsumerAffairs.Com, "Flaming Ford Scandal Disgraces Ford, Feds"

Ford Stonewalls Its Devastated Customers; NHTSA Fails In Its Mission to Protect the Public

          With its latest recall, the Ford Motor Co. has recalled almost 11 million cars and trucks since 2005 because of a clear danger that the vehicles could erupt in flames without warning. But as the piecework recalls trickle out from the federal agency charged with the responsibility of protecting consumers from faulty automotive products, Fords keep burning, sometimes destroying homes and other vehicles while Ford denies responsibility and tells its customers to call their insurance company. More...

MSNBC.com, "Ford recalls 3.6 million vehicles over switch; Cruise control in more than a dozen models from ’92 to ’04 linked to fires"

          Ford Motor Co. said Friday it is recalling 3.6 million passenger cars, trucks, sport utility vehicles and vans to address concerns about a cruise control switch that has led to previous recalls based on reports of fires. Ford said the recall covered more than a dozen vehicle models built from 1992-2004. The company said it was responding to concerns from owners about the safety of their cars and questions about the speed control deactivation switch in the vehicles that is powered at all times. More...

Crossville Chronicle, "ATV accident leaves child critical"

         A parent's worst nightmare came true Wednesday morning when a man traveling a rural Cumberland County road rounded a curve to find his son underneath an all-terrain vehicle in the roadway, according to witnesses and the Tennessee Highway Patrol. More...

Woodtv.com, "Four wheeler accident kills promising baseball player"

        An 18-year-old baseball player from Whitehall was killed in a four wheeler accident Friday night on Whitneyville road. More...

Canada.com, "Rein in ATVs to reduce carnage, surgeon urges"

        In the wake of the weekend death of a 13-year-old boy while driving an all-terrain vehicle (ATV), an Edmonton spinal cord surgeon is renewing his call for a ban on people under the age of 16 driving quads and for the licensing of all quad drivers. More...

Edmonton Sun (Canada), "Quad rollover kills boy, 13"

          A 13-year-old Rimbey boy died in a quadding accident Saturday afternoon about 60 km west of Rocky Mountain House. Wyatt Lyal Bauer was driving a Yamaha Rhino alone on a logging road in the False Creek area, when he went down a steep hill and lost control of the vehicle, which then landed on him, Mounties said. More...

FayObserver.com (North Carolina), "1 dead, 4 injured in van crash on I-40"

          A single-vehicle accident on Interstate 40 left one person dead in Sampson County on Sunday afternoon, delaying traffic in the westbound lanes of the interstate for nearly two hours. Killed was Jon Trevor Butler, 28, of Cimmeron Drive Myrtle Beach, S.C. The accident happened at 3:20 p.m. on I-40, 8 miles west of Faison around the 350-mile marker, said Sgt. Joel Siles of the state Highway Patrol. More...

Law.com, "Florida Jury Awards $6 Million to Man Injured in Ford Van Rollover"

          After a six-week product liability trial, a Broward Circuit Court jury in Florida Wednesday awarded $6 million to a 22-year-old man for injuries he suffered five years ago in the rollover of a 1993 Ford Aerostar van. It was a victory for plaintiff Julian Felipe, who was temporarily paralyzed after the accident. The jury found that Ford Motor Co., the sole defendant in the case, was negligent in putting the vehicle on the market with a defect in the design and manufacture of its roof structure that led to a roof collapse. More...

Times & Democrat (South Carolina), "10-year-old girl dies in collision"

          Authorities say a 10-year-old Tennessee girl was wearing her seat belt, but died Tuesday after being ejected onto Interstate 26 from a van traveling to Georgia for a softball tournament. Alexis James of Knoxville died at the scene of a one-car crash at the 120 mile marker, according to Calhoun County Coroner Donnie Porth. "(Investigators) think that they had an extreme blowout," Porth said. "At some point, she was ejected." More...

Waco Tribune-Herald, "Waco Jury awards $8 million verdict in suit over 2005 big rig smashup"

          A Waco jury on Friday handed down an $8 million verdict against Charles Lay, of Waco, and Kansas-based National Carriers Inc., for the 2005 wrongful death of 20-year-old Round Rock resident Ellen Esther Deunsing, killed when her car was hit from behind by an 18-wheeler driven by Lay on U.S. Interstate 35. Rob Ammons, the Houston-based lawyer representing Deunsing’s father, Ron Deunsing, said local attorney John Mabry, who assisted Ammons with the case, told him "this might be the largest verdict for compensatory damages in a death case for one claimant awarded in McLennan County." More...