FedEx Sued After Delivery Driver Dies In Tire Blowout Accident

FedEx is being sued by the wife of another driver who recently lost his life after a tire blowout. The details of the death are grisly, so prepare yourself. The driver became trapped in his vehicle after a rear-end accident and burned alive.

One of the elements that you can sue for in a personal injury lawsuit is the suffering of the victim. In this case, the victim suffered a terrible painful death.

For those of you familiar with the witch trials, it takes a while to burn to death. In most cases, the victims aren’t killed by the fire, but suffocate on the smoke. It’s about as painful a way to go as any you can think of.

What happened? 

A FedEx van blew out a tire and another vehicle slammed into the back of it. The driver was trapped inside the car and died of suffocation due to smoke inhalation. The victim’s wife believes that FedEx is responsible on the grounds that their retread tires are intrinsically unsafe.

Whose liability does this fall on? 

It depends. In this case, the wife is claiming that FedEx used faulty retread tires which can be a difficult argument to win on because tires can be retread safely. However, they have a bad reputation in the press, so civil defense attorneys will simply assume this is fake alarm and defend the case on that basis.

The retreader 

If the tire was defective it creates a liability chain in which FedEx is responsible, the retreader is responsible, and the driver is responsible for failing to inspect the vehicle prior to taking it out on a journey.

The argument that FedEx uses faulty “retread” tires, however, is unlikely to gain much merit unless the plaintiffs can prove that particular tire was faulty and that’s why it blew out. It would then create the liability chain described above.

Duties of care 

Understand that all logistics companies use retread tires but some tires are not well suited to be retread. A determination must be made considering the quality of the case of the tire. New treads can then be rubber-welded onto a suitable tire case and the tires are more or less as good as the original. However, the press got wind that companies were saving money using retreads and in the event that one retread fails, the whole industry gets a black mark on its record.

You should be aware that retread tires are not going anywhere because retreading can be done safely, but it requires an expert’s eye. If the retreading process failed or the tire was unfit to be retread, then the retreader is primarily liable for the death or injury.

Lastly, the driver hit a stationary vehicle which will increase his own liability but only if the FedEx vehicle stopped in a place where it was logical to stop and considered other vehicles on the road when parking the vehicle.

Talk to a Florida Personal Injury Lawyer Today 

Halpern, Santos & Pinkert handle product liability lawsuits for Florida residents. Call our Florida personal injury lawyers today to schedule a free consultation and we can begin discussing your case immediately.

Source:

dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11548995/Widow-sues-FedEx-delivery-firms-van-suffered-tire-blowout-caused-husbands-death.html