An Alabama jury has hit Daimler Truck North America with a nine-figure verdict after finding a defective design caused severe injuries to a trucker involved in a rollover crash.
On Sept. 6, a jury in a Clarke County circuit court put Daimler Truck on the hook for $160 million for a rollover crash of a new Western Star truck. Attorneys for the driver, Leonard Wiley Street, argued that the manufacturer’s roof and driver’s seat designs were “defective and unreasonably dangerous.”
At the center of the lawsuit is a crash that occurred in June 2022. Street was driving a new 2023 Western Star 4700 truck on U.S. Route 84. A pickup truck pulling a trailer encroached into Street’s lane, forcing him off the road and causing a rollover crash. Street fractured his neck, resulting in him becoming a quadriplegic.
Street filed a lawsuit against Daimler Truck, claiming both the roof and seat designs of the Western Star 4700 were “defective and unreasonably dangerous.” He argued that the manufacturer had known for some time about the defective condition of the truck.
Regarding the roof, the lawsuit claims that Daimler Truck’s cab “is not suitable for its intended purpose and did not provide adequate crashworthiness safety for occupants in the event of a foreseeable rollover event.” According to Beasley Allen, the law firm representing Street, the truck manufacturer uses a roof designed in 1995, which has remained unchanged for nearly 30 years.
Street also claimed that the Western Star truck did not have an automatic pull-down safety seat.
According to product safety company IMMI, a driver in a standard air suspension seat can move upward during a rollover crash, increasing the chance of serious injuries or death. A pull-down system lowers the seat when an impact is detected, putting the driver in a safer zone in a rollover crash when the roof can cave in.
The 2023 Western Star 4700 Street was driving did not have a pull-down safety seat. However, Daimler Truck does offer a pull-down safety seat as an option for that truck, according to the lawsuit. Street argued that the manufacturer had a duty to include a pull-down safety seat as a standard feature.
According to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration 2015 report titled “The Need for Additional Heavy Truck Crashworthiness Standards,” fewer than 1% of Class 8 trucks included orders for pull-down seats, the lowest rate of the nine safety technologies studied. The lawsuit also refers to a crashworthiness study in which Daimler Truck participated. That study found the need for a 240% increase in cab strength to provide adequate protection to occupants in a rollover crash.
Street’s crash involved a 360-degree rollover. Daimler Truck argued that no truck could withstand the rare and forceful event of a 360-degree rollover. However, attorneys for Street presented evidence suggesting that a 180-degree rollover crash could be “catastrophic” with Daimler Truck’s roof design.
“Rollovers represent the single most harmful event for truck drivers, and (Daimler Truck) failed to increase cab strength for nearly 30 years despite having this knowledge,” Beasley Allen said in a news release. “This should have never happened, but we hope this verdict will send a message to all heavy-truck manufacturers that driver safety should always come first.”
A jury agreed with Street’s product liability claim against Daimler Truck and awarded him $75 million in compensatory damages and $75 million in punitive damages. His wife was awarded $10 million in compensatory damages.
Daimler Truck told Land Line in an email that its products exceed all safety standards. The company plans to appeal the verdict.
“We stand by the safety of our products, and our safety testing (including cab crush) meets and exceeds all industry standards in place in the U.S. and worldwide,” Daimler Truck said in a statement. “We have strong grounds for appeal and intend to pursue this action.”
Daimler Truck is the latest trucking company to fall victim to a nuclear verdict. Just one day before the Alabama verdict, a Missouri jury put trailer manufacturer Wabash on the hook for nearly half-a-billion dollars in a similar product liability case. Wabash’s rear underride guard was determined to be defective despite meeting all federal regulations.
In Texas, the state Supreme Court will hear a personal injury case where Werner Enterprises was found liable for a crash and ordered to pay more than $100 million. That case involved a pickup truck that lost control and struck a Werner truck. The Texas Department of Public Safety crash scene investigator said the Werner driver “didn’t do anything wrong” and there was nothing he “could have done to avoid the collision.” LL
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