The Houston SUV injury lawyers remark that in a year when Ford hoped to introduce its revamped Ford Escape to the market with much acclaim, the small SUV has been dogged by a series of very serious recalls for dangerous defects. One recall that we recently discussed led the company to take the nearly unheard of step of telling owners of 2013 Ford Escapes to simply stop driving them. At once. A cut fuel line could lead to sudden engine fires, and had already done so in several vehicles.
Ford had also recalled another 10,000 of the 2013 Ford Escapes to correct a problem with carpet padding that could interfere with braking. Now the company is recalling about 485,000 Escapes and Ford Mavericks from the 2001 through 2004 model years to fix sticking accelerator pedals that can cause severe crashes.
Our Houston SUV injury lawyers wonder how these vehicles can make it all the way through the design, assembly, and testing phases without anyone ever noticing these problems. It seems it would cost Ford less money to be more diligent up front and catch the errors before they lead to damaging recalls and potentially deadly crashes.
This latest recall affects Ford Escapes and Mavericks from the 2001 to 2004 model years that have 3-liter V-6 engines and cruise control. The NHTSA has received 68 complaints regarding the defect, including 13 crashes, 8 injuries, and one fatality.
The one known fatality from the dangerous Ford Escape defect occurred in January 2012. 17-year-old Saige Bloom, whose mother was following behind in another car, found that she could not stop after she had depressed the accelerator pedal. Her Ford Escape kept accelerating into an intersection through a red light, where young Saige Bloom’s Escape crashed into a car and then rolled 3 times. Ms. Bloom died from her crash injuries.
An inspector that Ms. Bloom’s family hired after the accident found that the Ford Escape’s speed control pedal had broken and become stuck under the engine cover leaving the throttle open at near full speed.
Our Houston SUV injury lawyers note that the spate of recalls relating to dangerous defects in the Ford Escape has apparently not dimmed the vehicle’s popularity. It was the top selling SUV in the United States for the past month and was also the top selling small SUV for 3 of the 4 model years affected by the latest recall.
Some consumer advocates suggest that Ford has been slow to take action regarding this dangerous defect. The executive director of the consumer group Center for Auto Safety says that Ford knew of the sticking accelerator problem since at least 2005. Our Houston SUV injury lawyers emphasize that it’s now 7 years later, and it took the tragic and deadly crash of a teenager in January to bring attention to the problem.
Ford says that it does not yet have enough parts to truly repair the defect, but that dealers can disconnect the cruise control until the parts are available and that should prevent the snag from occurring. The cruise control cables can snag on the plastic cover on top of the Escape’s engine and cause the accelerator pedal to stick. Ford says that this can occur when the gas pedal is nearly fully depressed to the floor and where the cruise control cables have been bent or pushed from their original position.
A Ford Motor Company spokesperson points out that the cables might be bent or moved when the vehicles are serviced. Some think that the problems currently surfacing could date back to a servicing of the Ford Escapes during a 2004 recall effort. In 2004, almost 600,000 Ford Escapes and Mazda Tributes were recalled to fix an accelerator cable defect.
Our Houston SUV injury lawyers point out that the Tribute is a vehicle identical to the Escape that is manufactured by Ford for Mazda, essentially the Ford Escape under another brand name. It’s not clear yet whether Mazda will recall the Tributes affected by the problem. But it is our Houston SUV injury lawyers’ opinion that it should, since the Tribute shares the same potential for the sticking accelerator pedal defect relating to damaged cruise control cables that can lead to equally deadly crashes as in the Escape.
The NHTSA said that the 2004 recall repairs might have damaged the vehicles’ cruise control cables. And some Ford dealers had told the company back in 2004 and 2005 that some of the cruise control cables got damaged during the 2004 recall repairs.
When the parts become available, Ford has said that its dealers will replace the fasteners on the engine cover in the Ford Escape. They will raise the engine cover to make sure that there is plenty of room for the cruise control cable so that it can’t become snagged. In the meantime, owners of the Ford Escapes affected by the recall can get dealers to disconnect their cruise control to prevent the snagging cable and sticky acceleration problem.
Given the large number of complaints regarding the sticky accelerator problem and the number of years that it has know of the danger of the defect, our Houston SUV injury lawyers feel that Ford has been quite lax and slow to act to address the problem. In the intervening years, numerous crashes have occurred, resulting in a number of injuries and one tragic death. Buyers might want to consider the Ford Escape’s history of defects and the company’s safety record before rushing out to buy one of the small SUVs.
If you’re injured due to a vehicle defect that the manufacturer has neglected to address, hold that manufacturer financially accountable for the harm you and your family has needlessly suffered. Contact our experienced Houston SUV injury lawyers for a free and confidential legal consultation. We’ll listen to the specific circumstances of your case, and help you understand your available legal options and solutions. Our more than 14 years of successful case results on behalf of our injured clients speak for themselves. Take a look, call us today, and get started on your road to financial recovery.
(Source: Tom Krisher, Associated Press, Auto, 7/26/2012)