A nine year old Texas boy died tragically in a
Yamaha Rhino all terrain vehicle (ATV) accident – even though he was wearing his seatbelt and the driver was maintaining a reasonable speed. His family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Yamaha for placing a defectively designed product on the market.
The case
According to ABC Texas news affiliate KLTV (www.kltv.com), nine year old Jeremy Todd (J.T.) Crow was riding in a 2007 Yamaha Rhino 450 with his older sister at a slow speed. The vehicle rolled over, and even though he was wearing a seatbelt and the driver was maintaining a reasonable speed, he was allegedly thrown from the vehicle and died – something that his parents say should never have happened. His family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Yamaha and now seeks to educate parents about the dangers of ATVs.
Why is the Yamaha Rhino so dangerous?
Yamaha’s Rhino was marketed for rugged terrain, ranch and flatland use. However, industry experts say that Yamaha rushed the Rhino to market to compete with other manufacturers who were releasing similar products. Therefore, the company did little pre-market safety testing before it began selling the Rhino.
The vehicle comes in three different engine sizes – a 450, 660 and 700, but the 2004 to 2007 models did not come equipped with important safety features such as doors or handles to keep its occupants inside the vehicle during accidents. Consumer groups say that the Rhino should have been recalled a long time ago to address these design defects and others such as a very narrow wheel base and a high center of gravity – which makes rollovers (even at very low speeds) too frequent an occurrence.
Yamaha knows it should have done dynamic testing
Legal experts say that Yamaha has admitted that it didn’t do enough testing of the Rhino before placing it on the market. They say that the company should have conducted dynamic, or real life, testing not only to see what happens in real life such as going too fast, making sharp turns and having too many people in the vehicle, but what happens when occupants, like J.T., are doing what they should by wearing seatbelts and driving in a vehicle that isn’t going too fast.
If you’ve had an accident while being an occupant in the Rhino, click here to contact an attorney to discuss your situation. We may be able to help.
