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Were Fatal Mechanical Defects to Blame for Newport Beach Accident?

Police are investigating the fatal Newport Beach accident that occurred over the weekend. They are looking into a number of potential causes, including whether the driver was on medications at the time of the crash. They’re also looking at whether any fatal mechanical defects such as a stuck accelerator pedal leading to unintended acceleration, could have been to blame.

There has been much discussion in the media about the horrific motor vehicle crash that occurred in Newport Beach on the W. Coast Hwy. on Saturday. The driver of a Taurus was apparently driving at excessive speeds when the car plowed into several vehicles, and became airborne, finally landing on its side. The driver was killed instantly. Also killed were the occupants of at least two other vehicles that were involved in the accident. Several other motorists were injured, some of them sustaining critical injuries. The accident left tremendous devastation in its wake, with many cars turning into horrific mangled wrecks, and some of the occupants having to be extricated from their cars only hours later.

It’s not just the fact that three people were killed in this accident, which made this accident such a big story. It is the fact that the Taurus was traveling at such high speeds that it literally became airborne soon after impact with one of the other vehicles. According to some accounts, the car remained airborne for about 50 feet before it landed on the road, killing the driver. Police believe that the car was traveling at at least 90 mph when the accident occurred. Investigators are currently focusing on medication use by the Taurus driver as a possible explanation of the crash.

One other possible explanation could be found on a website operated by the driver’s parents. The woman’s mother had posted on her website about a recent unintended acceleration episode involving her daughter. According to the posting, the daughter had called her parents from the side of the freeway, panicked because she had been unable to control the speed of the car. She had applied the brake repeatedly, managing to slow down the car enough to pull over to the side of the road. However, the posting has no entry date, and there is no information about which of the woman’s daughters was involved in that sudden and unintended acceleration incident. Could a fatal mechanical defect been the cause of this horrific crash?

California injury lawyers have been very familiar with the unintended acceleration issues detected in Toyota vehicles that led to a series of recalls by that automaker. At least one other deadly California accident has already been linked to unintended acceleration. In 2009, an off-duty California Highway Patrol officer, his wife, daughter and brother-in-law were killed when their vehicle suddenly and inexplicably accelerated to high speeds, and crashed. However, we need more investigations before we can determine that something similar happened in this case too.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of motor vehicle defects. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

The Reeves Law Group is not representing any party in the matters discussed in this posting.

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