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| Norma Brainerd |
Swanson
v. Nissan; product liability
Portland resident Norma Brainerd
(then Swanson) purchased a 1994 Nissan Altima specifically because
it featured a passenger side air bag. She felt that feature would
help make her and her children safer. At the time, there had been
little in the news about air bags posing a risk. In December 1995
— just three nights before Christmas — Brainerd was
the passenger in her Altima when the driver misjudged a turn and
ran over an eight inch curb. The impact was minor, but the vehicle's
air bags deployed and Brainerd was forcefully struck in the face.
She was properly seat-belted and had her seat halfway back in the
seat track. The air bag broke her nose, gave her a concussion and
left her blind for six weeks. She regained the sight in her right
eye but is legally blind in her left.
Following the accident,
Brainerd began looking for an attorney to hold Nissan accountable
for her injuries. "It wasn't just for me. I wanted to get those
cars off the road." A friend led her to Larry Baron. "I
was impressed with his determination," she says. "He really
did a good job all the way to court. He dug into it and kept unearthing
more and more cases where the same thing had happened to other people."
In his research for
the case, Baron found evidence that the Altima's air bag had been
designed to strike the occupant while still inflating. It flew out
at the occupant at a speed of 159 miles per hour. All this was contrary
to a basic premise of air bag design — that a bag be fully
inflated before the occupant falls into it. Baron discovered
over 20 other women and children who had sustained serious eye injuries
in accidents involving 1994 and 1995 Nissan Altimas. He also learned
that while the driver side air bag had tethers, the passenger side
did not. Tethers are straps inside the bag that prevent it from
traveling too far back into the vehicle. He learned statistically
that air bags were not needed in low impact collisions.
In November 1998,
Brainerd's case proceeded to a jury trial in U.S. District Court in
Portland. "As we got close to the trial date, I was really
scared," Brainerd recalls. "But Larry demonstrated this
quiet determination. He helped me get through with his sense of
assuredness and confidence." The trial began but on the third
day the case settled.
Brainerd remained frustrated
the cars were still on the road and other people stood a chance
of getting hurt. In August 2002, Brainerd and her husband traveled
to Washington, DC to participate in a Public Citizen news conference
calling for the recall of 1994 and 1995 Altimas. "In the years
since my accident, numerous other people have been injured by this
same air bag," she told reporters. "Nissan remains aware
of the defective product but has done nothing to recall and replace
it. How many defective air bags will unexpectedly take the precious
vision of other innocent victims before Nissan recalls this air
bag?"
On April 24, 2003, Nissan finally
announced a program to recall the Altimas and replace their defective
device. Many observers believe the
pressure Baron and Brainerd brought against Nissan was significant in moving
the car company to initiate the recall. |
Maria Gaytan |
Gaytan v. DaimlerChrysler; product liability
To most people, serious injuries sustained in automobile collisions are usually associated with high-impact collisions resulting in severely damaged or completely destroyed vehicles. However, seeminly minor impacts can also result in debilitating injuries. That was the case for Maria Gaytan.
In January 2004, Gaytan was involved in a collision near Hermiston that would be described by most people as a simple fender bender. After receiving a green light at an intersection, the vehicle in front of her accelerated but then stopped suddenly forcing Gayton to hit the back of it. Unfortunately, the airbag in her 2002 Dodge Neon deployed unnecessarily and with extreme force, crushing her right eye. Gaytan was wearing her seatbelt at the time of the collision, and if the airbag had not fired during the crash, she would have suffered no injuries.
Although damage to both cars was minimal, the damage to Gaytan’s eye was catastrophic. The unfolding bag slammed Gaytan in the face, smashing apart her glasses and rupturing the globe of her eye. After surgeons made every attempt to save the eyeball (vision was lost forever on impact), it was surgically removed and replaced with a prosthesis.
With the help of Larry Baron, Gaytan filed a claim against manufacturer DaimlerChrysler for a defectively designed airbag sensor system. Experts retained by Baron reported the single point sensor system in the 2002 Neon was at the heart of the problem. The sensor not only ordered the airbag to fire late, it caused the airbag to launch despite the fact that the collision was not severe enough to warrant deployment.
Baron’s experts argued that an effective sensor system should have sensors located at the front of the vehicle so that there can be early reception of a crash signal and a proper interpretation of it. DaimlerChrysler settled the case when Baron presented his evidence of the defective nature of the manufacturer’s airbag deployment system.
Thanks to Baron's help, Gaytan received compensation for her medical bills and the permanent loss of her right eye. |
Ali Warsome |
Warsome v. Nissan; product liability
Ali Warsome fled his native country of Somalia
for a better life in the US. Unfortunately, his life changed dramatically
for the worse as the result of a car accident on April 28, 2002.
On that day,
Warsome was riding in a 1994 Nissan Altima and traveling from his
home in Falls Church VA to Washington DC. He was headed to the bus
station to visit his daughter in Minnesota. The driver, one of his
sons, was attempting a sudden lane change when the car struck a
traffic barrier. It wasn't much of a crash — the Altima didn't
even need a tow, it was still drivable. However, the impact caused
the passenger side air bag to inflate. The air bag struck Warsome's
face with such force that his left eye had to be removed. Surgeons
were unable to restore the vision in his right eye because –
according to his medical records – "the retina was completely
shredded." Ali Warsome lost his eyesight because of the impact
of the air bag."I cannot see the sky anymore,"
the 74-year-old immigrant told a reporter. "I cannot cook,
I cannot walk, I cannot help my grandchildren.... I don't know what
to do."Warsome's Washington DC attorney,
John F. Kennedy, brought Larry Baron in as co-counsel because of
Baron's experience prosecuting the Altima air bag cases. Baron and
Kennedy documented the defective operation of the airbag. They noted
how at least 40 other individuals — riding as passengers in
Altimas — had been blinded or otherwise suffered damage to
their eyes as a result of the force with which the air bag strikes
a passenger's face. Eventually Nissan agreed to an undisclosed settlement
with Warsome.
Warsome supported
the April 2003 recall of the airbags in the 1994 and 1995 Nissan
Altimas. He was featured in a Los Angeles Times newspaper article
documenting the product defect just months prior to the recall.
This was one of many pressure points applied to Nissan that eventually
led to the car company’s decision to replace the air bags.
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News Coverage & Articles
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Court
Denies Nissan Motion for Summary Judgment
US District Court
rules that a release signed by the plaintiff for the primary insurers
does not release Nissan.
Nissan
Altima test video
Video stops action
at point of impact of air bag 
1994
Nissan Altima TV ad
Nissan commercial
shows air bags in action 
KATU
Air bag Investigative Report
May 17, 2004 KATU
TV 
The
Making of a Recall: Eight years of reliving nightmare
end in victory
July 2003 SideBar,
monthly newsletter of Oregon Trial Lawyers Association
Dateline
Air bag Investigative Report UPDATE
May 7, 2003 NBC
Dateline 
KATU
Air bag Replacement Report
April 24, 2003 KATU
TV 
Nissan
Altima Air Bags Recalled
April 24, 2003 Public Citizen
Air
Bag Lawsuits Blame Nissan for Eye Injuries
November 18, 2002 LA Times
Nissan
Altima Air Bags Blind People
August 7,
2002 Public Citizen
Air bag
Investigative Report
July 23, 2002 NBC
Dateline 
Nissan
Settles Swanson (Brainerd) Lawsuit
October 23, 1998 Associated Press |
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No
Dead End For Air Bag Cases
Air
bag lawsuits have survived recent rulings concerning preemption
by federal safety regulations. The article steers through the
course of current air bag injury case law and suggests ways to make
sure injured motorists are compensated. Baron and co-author
Robert C. Sanders share their litigation experience in “No
Dead End For Air Bags.” The article appeared in the February
2001 issue of Trial magazine, a publication of the Association
of Trial Lawyers of America. |
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The
Hard Truth About Air Bags
The auto industry marketed air bags as a safety panacea, but the truth
is that air bags can kill. Despite knowing about the hazards, automakers
have been slow to adopt safer designs. Baron and co-author Matthew Whitman
write about the dangers of automobile air bags in “The Hard Truth
About Air Bags.” The article appeared in the January 2000 issue
of Trial magazine, a publication of the Association of Trial Lawyers
of America. |
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Commentary:
So You Think That Air Bag Makes You Safer?
In high-velocity crashes the air bag probably does make you safer, but
here's a case that suggests consumers need more facts about the subject.
Attorney Lawrence Baron presents the argument that the public has the
right to know more facts about their cars' air bags. Baron's commentary
appeared as a guest editorial in The Oregonian newspaper on January 2,
1999. |
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