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Volkswagon Recalls Millions of Cars

On November 13, 2013, Volkswagen announced it was recalling 2.64 million Volkswagen and Audi cars worldwide due to multiple potential issues.  Volkswagen is Europe’s largest automobile manufacturer.  The recall is one of the largest ever recall impacting Volkswagen.  Many of the vehicles being recalled are located in China and the United Kingdom.

One of the safety issues involves vehicles with seven-speed dual-clutch gearboxes.  The affected gearboxes are known as DQ200 gearboxes.  Vehicles impacted by the recall include Scirocco 1.4Ts, 1.4Ts and 1.2Ts Beetles, Audi A1s and A3s, Golf wagons, and Golf sports convertibles.   Other affected vehicles include Boras, Sagitars, Magotans, and Tourans.  According to Volkswagen, the synthetic oil in these gearboxes needs to be replaced.  This safety issue affects 1.6 million vehicles.  Volkswagen has indicated the issue involves vehicles subjected to hot, humid conditions and stop-and-go driving.  These conditions, coupled with the synthetic oil, can cause damage to electronics in the vehicles in question.  Replacing current synthetic oil with a mineral oil has been found to correct the problem.

800,000 Tiguans are also subject to the recall.  The Tiguans suffer from a possible fault in a fuse that can affect lighting.  Models built between the years 2008 and 2011 are affected.  The recall requires replacing the fuse with a fuse with a more durable surface.  Obviously, issues with the failure of lighting can be disastrous, depending on the circumstances involved.  No one wants their headlights to fail in the dead of night while driving down dimly-lit roads.

There recall also involves 239,000 Amarok trucks.  The trucks have fuel lines that potentially leak.  The recall involves fitting protection to the fuel lines to prevent damage.

If you drive a Volkswagen or Audi vehicle, in order to verify whether your vehicle is subject to this recall, you can visit the following website:

http://www.vw.com/en/owners/parts-and-accessories/protection/recalls-campaigns.html.

Relatively minor issues such as those affecting the Volkswagen and Audi vehicles in question may seem unimportant, but it is vital to ensure any vehicle you drive is up-to-date on any replacements, modifications, etc., necessitated by recalls.  Nearly everyone can remember the safety recall and related issues that plagued Toyota during 2010.  Over five million cars involved in the Toyota recall were recalled due to issues with floormats.  While it sounded innocent enough, the floormats could cause the pedal to stick and thereby cause extremely unsafe acceleration issues.

While our law firm is certainly not suggesting that the current Volkswagen recall is at all similar to the Toyota recall, it is important to note that proper maintenance and attention to your vehicle is important for your safety, as well as the safety of all other individuals on the road.

If you have been involved in an accident and you believe a malfunction related to your motor vehicle might have caused or contributed to the accident, it is important that you retain an experienced personal injury attorney as soon as possible. Accidents involving failed or malfunctioning component parts are extremely complicated to litigate.  More than likely, your case will require extensive accident reconstruction and expert analysis. If you have been injured, these issues are the last things you want to be focused on.  You need to focus on recovery.  Let us help you through this difficult time by focusing on the legal aspects of your case.

Barrett Law, PLLC has been representing the rights of individuals injured in trucking accidents for many years.  If you or someone you love has been injured as a resulting of a motor vehicle accident and you suspect that defects in the motor vehicle caused or contributed to the accident, please contact our firm today at reached at (601) 790-1505 to schedule an initial, no-cost consultation.

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Debate Over How to Curb Distracted Driving in Mississippi

Everyone has read about the dangers of distracted driving.  Unfortunately, many of us have also experienced it first hand in the form of being involved in a motor vehicle accident or having a loved one or friend who has been involved in such an accident.  There is simply no debate that distracted driving leads to increase risk of motor vehicle accidents.  However, there is a debate on the best way to deal with the issues related to distracted driving.

Many individuals have begun advocating for increased technology to alleviate distracted driving.  Devices that allow voice-activated commands, such as voice-activated texting, voice-activated GPS, and hands-free telephone calls, are on the rise.  The concept behind these products is to use technology to make current technology safer, rather than prohibiting its use while operating a motor vehicle altogether.  Despite this, there are disputes about whether ever-increasing technology is, in fact, the best way to deal with distracted driving or whether ever-increasing technology simply creates even more distracted driving.

A study published by Professor David Strayer of the University of Utah, sponsored by AAA (formerly the American Automobile Association) Foundation for Traffic Safety, indicates that ever-increasing technology does not alleviate distracted driving and actually makes it even worse.  The full study can be found at https://www.aaafoundation.org/measuring-cognitive-distractions.  The study measured cognitive distractions while driving a motor vehicle.  According to the study, three types of in-vehicle distractions exist:  impairments to driving (such as taking your eyes of the road); manual impairments to driving (such as taking your hands of the steering wheel); and cognitive impairments to driving (when attention is withdrawn from the task of driving itself).

To evaluate cognitive distraction, researchers evaluated reaction time and physiological measures, such as brain activity and eye movements.  Drivers were given a series of eight increasingly cognitively-demanding tasks in various simulated laboratory and driving simulator and real-life situations.  These activities included no distractions at all; listening to the radio; listening to an audio book; talking with a passenger; having a conversation on a hand-held device; having a conversation on a hands-free device; speech-to-text; and performing math and verbal problems.  As drivers engaged in activities that required more attention, cognitive distraction consistently increased.  Notably, speech-to-text and more complicated cognitive activities, such as performing math and verbal problems with driving, produced the next-to-highest and highest levels of cognitive distraction.

The study reports that even with eyes and hand on the wheel, causes of cognitive distraction cause major impairments to safe driving.  These include suppressed brain activity to the areas needed for safe driving; increased reaction time; missed cues; and decreased visual attention.  The study clearly indicates that hands-free does not mean safer.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recently released figures related to accidents occurring in the year 2012.  According to the yearly report, 421,000 individuals were injured in accidents related to distracted driving.

Regardless of the cause, if you or a loved one has been injured or a loved one has been killed in a motor vehicle accident, the consequences can be devastating.  During this difficult time, you need experienced attorneys to help you make sense of the chaos surrounding you—legally, financially, and otherwise.  Barrett Law PLLC, has experience to provide you with this kind of help.  Our law firm ahs been representing individuals injured in car and truck accidents in Mississippi for decades.  If you have any questions about lawsuits related to car or truck accident injuries, please contact us at (601) 790-1505 to set up a no-cost consultation.

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