A PHYSICIAN'S EXPERIENCE IN LITIGATION OF AUTOMATIVE SAFETY ISSUES - CASE REPORTS

Case reports relate to seatbelt defense, automobile and highway design defects causing personal injury, and reconstruction of pre-crash positions of vehicular occupants and pedestrians. A relatively recent and very potent influence on automotive safety factors is the increasing threat and actual loss of money by parties responsible for contributing to personal injury in automotive mishaps. This influence has dealt in all directions, to include government liability for highway booby traps such as defective or improperly placed guard rails, offending telephone poles, light posts and bridge abutments; automobile manufacturers for design defects and seatbelt failures; and passengers for failure to use available seatbelts. I present herein case reports defining the issues, the results of litigation or settlement, my probable influence on the final results, and (where available) citations for reference. In addition, some unusual and bizarre cases are described. /HSRI/

• Corporate Authors:

  American Association for Automotive Medicine

  801 Green Bay Road
  Lake Bluff, IL  United States  60044
• Authors:
  • Fisher, P
• Conference:
  • 20th Annual Conference of the American Association for Automotive Medicine
  • Date: 1976-11-1 to 1976-11-3
• Publication Date: 1976

Media Info

• Pagination: p. 73-81
• Serial:
  • Volume: 20

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Automobiles; Case studies; Highway design; Highway safety; Injuries; Litigation; Manual safety belts; Vehicle design
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Law; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00144161
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Highway Safety Research Institute
• Contract Numbers: DOT-HS-024-1-115
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Apr 13 1977 12:00AM