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Defective Tires


Few things are more devastating on the highways of Virginia or elsewhere than a tire blow out. When a tire fails at a high speed, your vehicle may veer off the road, cross lanes, swerve or hit another vehicle. Tire failures frequently cause deaths and serious injuries. On occasions, a tire manufacturer or another party may be to blame for a defective tire that causes injuries and deaths.

Our Virginia defective tire lawyers know how devastating cases of this nature can be. The auto and tire manufacturing industry has a long history of making poor tires that can separate or blow out. A flawed recall system means you may not be aware you are driving on dangerous tires.

What Are the Main Types of Tire Defects?

Your car tires may fail in a number of ways. It’s important to check tires regularly and keep them inflated. The main types of tire defects are as follows:

  • Tread separation
  • Tire blowouts
  • Sudden tire failure
  • Tire or rim explosions

How many People Are Killed and Injured by Tire Failures?

Tire blowouts, flat tires, and other failures cause over 78,000 accidents, 10,000 serious injuries, and more than 410 deaths a year, according to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report. In 2016, tire failures were linked to 733 fatalities on the roads of America.

Who Can Be Held Liable for Accidents Involving Defective Tires?

Car owners have a duty to check on their tires as do workshops that perform state inspections. In some high-profile cases, tire manufacturers have been held liable for deaths and injuries following product liability lawsuits.

Parties held to be at-fault for tire failures that cause injury or deadly accidents include:

The Driver

Many drivers fail to inspect, maintain and rotate their tires. Often tires rot or become under-inflated. Most tires have labeling that indicates how many miles they can be safely driven on. Often drivers ignore the labeling.

A Trucking or Bus Company

A trucking company or a freight or bus operator is responsible for making sure its fleet is properly maintained. Both trucking operators and bus companies are responsible for the maintenance of their fleets and should have rigorous systems in place to check and maintain tires.

A Tire Manufacturer

On occasions, tires have been shown to be defective when they were manufactured. A design may be flawed or shoddy manufacture meant the design was not adhered to. The driver of a vehicle injured by a tire blowout in Virginia or another driver or passenger who is hurt in a crash may file a product liability claim against a tire or wheel manufacturer or a carmaker.

An Auto Service and Repair Shop

On occasions, repair shops fit tires incorrectly or fail to notice a defect during a service or an inspection. The auto shop can be sued for negligence in certain circumstances.

Recalls of Defective Tires After Injuries and Deaths

The automobile industry has been hit by many mass recalls linked to injuries in recent years. Some of these involved defective tires.

The Ford/Firestone recall of 6.5 million SUV tires in 2000 was one of the most deadly episodes on the roads of America.  More than 100 deaths were linked to tread separation on Firestone tires fitted on the Ford Explorer SUV.

Most of the major tire manufacturers in the United States have experienced tread separation issues at some time. The problems were linked to poor design and manufacture practices.

In 2018, the NHTSA said it received allegations that defective Goodyear motor-home tires caused accidents that killed or injured 95 people over the past two decades.

The NHTSA began investigating whether the company’s G159 tires were unsafe in 2017 after a judge ordered the release of Goodyear data that was previously sealed under court orders and settlement agreements.

Hire an Experienced Virginia Defective Tire Lawyer

The manufacturers of tires on cars, trucks, buses and motorcycles have a legal responsibility to make and market products that are safe and to warn motorists of known defects.

We know from recent recalls that tire manufactures seldom want to reveal defects and dangers that inherent in their products. Unfortunately, many defective tires that are subject to a recall remain on the road because the motorists never received notification of a recall.

When tires fail due to a design or manufacturing defect, injuries are often severe. Drivers, passengers or other motorists can pay the price with their lives. The manufacturers should be held accountable for the harm caused.

At the Smith Law Center, our experienced trial injury lawyers will leave no stone unturned in the search for the truth. We have won over a billion dollars in verdicts and settlements and have helped accident victims since the 1940s. Please contact us today at (757) 244-7000.

 

 

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If you or a relative had a severe reaction to military housing mold, it might be time to talk with a toxic mold lawyer. Mold is everywhere, and can be dangerous. Researchers have linked mold to serious respiratory illnesses in some individuals.

Smith Law Center may be able to help if a property owner failed to keep you safe from mold in your military housing. We are one of Virginia’s oldest and most successful firms. We know how to hold negligent property owners responsible, especially when the military is involved.

Call us at (757) 244-700 or contact us online to set up a free consultation. There’s no fee for learning more about Virginia mold laws, your rights, and your legal options.

Mold in Military Housing

Black mold in military housing became widely known when Reuters published an investigation in 2018. Since then, the Department of Defense and the housing providers were supposed to take steps to improve the situation.

Unfortunately, a 2020 audit by the DoD Office of Inspector General found many issues, including the need for mold remediation, still persist.

Monetary Awards in Military Housing Toxic Mold Cases

If the property owner lets toxic mold run wild and continue to cause you harm, talk with our toxic mold attorneys about filing a lawsuit.

You may receive financial compensation for:

Service members and their families do not receive different types of damages than civilians. These are civil lawsuits in traditional courts of law.

Military Housing Mold Toxicity Symptoms

The Institute of Medicine discovered there was evidence connecting exposure to indoor mold with:

  • Upper respiratory tract symptoms;
  • Coughing;
  • Wheezing;
  • Asthma symptoms in individuals with asthma; and
  • Hypersensitivity pneumonitis in individuals with weak immune systems.

There is also limited evidence that mold causes respiratory illnesses in healthy children or causes people to develop asthma.

Understanding Exposure to Toxic Mold in Military Housing

The topic of toxic mold is complicated. This Is in part because the term “toxic mold” isn’t accurate. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) explains mold isn’t toxic or poisonous. However, some molds are toxigenic, which means they produce toxins called mycotoxins.

Mold is common in military housing because it’ll grow anywhere there’s moisture. That includes on and inside walls, carpet, upholstery, wallpaper, and heating and air conditioning systems. This is especially pronounced in humid conditions such as those present in Virginia.

Some people have no difficulties around mold, even large infestations in their homes. Other individuals are sensitive to molds, including those that produce mycotoxins. Someone can have a severe reaction when exposed to a large amount of mold indoors.

People may be more likely to experience mold toxicity symptoms if they have:

  • Allergies,
  • An underlying lung disease,
  • Immune suppression,
  • Chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder,
  • Asthma, or
  • Another chronic respiratory disease.

Common Types of Military Housing Mold

When you’re trying to learn more from the CDC and other resources, you’ll see the word “fungus” a lot. Mold is a type of fungus, which is something that exists all around us. Fungi are living organisms different from animals, plants, and bacteria. There are over 200,000 types of fungi and over 100,000 types of molds.

If you discovered mold in your military housing, it could be Cladosporium, Penicillium, Stachybotrys chartarum, Aspergillus, or many other types. Stachybotrys is what everyone knows as black mold. Aspergillus is a common indoor fungus, which releases mycotoxins and can cause illness. Your symptoms may resemble common allergy or asthma symptoms.

Who is Liable for Military Housing Mold?

Since 1996, most military housing has come under the management of private companies:

  • Belfour Beatty Communities: Fort Eustis and Fort Story/li>
  • Lincoln Military Housing: Dahlgren, Little Creek, Naval Station Norfolk, Northwest Annex, Oceana, Portsmouth, Quantico, and Yorktown/li>
  • Hunt Military Communities: Fort Lee and Langley AFB

Outside of Virginia, Lendlease and Corvias Military Living are two more housing providers. Together, these five companies formed the Military Housing Association.

Military families living in on-base housing must take their complaints to their private management company — not the military. The company is responsible for providing habitable conditions and making repairs, including mold remediation.

If you’re unsure about your rights, review your state law and local ordinances about mold. In general, it’s the landlord’s responsibility to provide a habitable unit, which means it has to be safe to live in. A unit isn’t safe if it’s causing a tenant health issues due to mold.

The Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act requires landlords to disclose if there’s mold in the written report of the move-in inspection. If a tenant discovers visible mold in the unit, then the Act requires the landlord to remove the mold and relocate the tenant until it’s gone at no additional cost to the tenant.

Unfortunately, many families find their housing providers aren’t receptive to complaints. Attorney Stephen M. Smith has handled many mold lawsuits against military housing providers who fail to abide by their lease terms and the law when it comes to mold remediation and other hazards.

Other Hazards in Military Housing

Many service members and their families deal with uncomfortable, if not hazardous, conditions in privatized military housing, including:

Lead Paint: Lead-based paint can cause headaches, nausea, fatigue, irritability, behavioral problems, learning disabilities, seizures, organ damage, and in extreme cases, death.

Asbestos: Exposure to asbestos harms a person’s lungs, and can lead to lung fibrosis (scarring), lung cancer, and mesothelioma.

Radon: Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer after smoking. It naturally forms underground, however cracks and gaps in buildings lead to over-exposure indoors.

Poor Water Quality: Dozens of military sites have water with detectable levels of harmful chemicals.

Other issues involve rodent or insect infestations, pesticides, and faulty electrical wiring.

What Happens When a Lot of People Get Sick?

Sometimes mold exposure impacts a single individual or family. However, when the mold spreads throughout military housing, it can impact hundreds or thousands of people.

Occasionally, a large enough group of people are injured to allow for a class action or mass tort lawsuit. A class action lawsuit is one where a class representative acts as the plaintiff on behalf of the group of hurt individuals. Not every victim participates in the lawsuit. There are rules about when a group is big and similar enough to create a class action.

Mass tort lawsuits are different. When there are fewer plaintiffs who have their own set of circumstances, each person files a lawsuit. For efficiency’s sake, one or a couple of law firms may represent most plaintiffs, and the lawsuits are consolidated in a federal court.

Call the Military Housing Mold Lawyers at Smith Law Center for Help Right Away

Mold cases come about in a few ways. You or a loved one may start getting sick, and after weeks or months of struggling to find answers, you finally realize your military housing has a mold infestation. In other cases, you struggle with visible mold and then become ill.

Once you connect the illness with the mold, it’s time to talk with a toxic mold lawyer. Reaching out to an attorney early helps you build a strong compensation claim. We know how to collect evidence, identify who is liable, and craft a successful argument for a settlement or court award.

Attorney Stephen M. Smith has decades of experience handling injury claims and has been internationally recognized for his work. He has litigated cases involving catastrophic injuries and complex legal and scientific issues. In 2019, he was inducted into the Virginia Lawyers Hall of Fame.

You’re in good hands when you come to Smith Law Center for help. Reach out online or call (757) 244-7000 to schedule your 100% free consultation.

Military Housing Mold Lawsuits: FAQs

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Use the simple form below to send a message directly to our lawyers. We will respond within 1 hour or less during business hours.

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