Toyota Said to Be Responsible for the Burning Death of Raminder Singh

The civil lawsuit of Singh vs. Toyota Motor Corporation, Case CV023159, is expected to begin Tuesday in San Joaquin County, Calif. In their opening statement, attorneys from the Franecke Law Group will argue that Toyota Motor Corp. failed to test the design of its Toyota Corolla in real world conditions, making the vehicle a fire hazard and the seatbelts a death trap.

A Nov. 26 press release says that approximately five years ago, Raminder Singh and his son, Gurinder, were riding in the Singh's Toyota Corolla, when they were forced off the road by another vehicle. Both were wearing their seatbelts. When their vehicle came to a stop, Gurinder Singh was able to unlatch his seatbelt and get out of the car. However, bystanders were unable to get Raminder Singh's seatbelt to release, and he burned to death when the car erupted in flames.

The lawsuit, filed by Raminder Singh's family, alleges that Singh died because of Toyota's faulty seatbelt latch. It's also alleged that Toyota neither designed nor tested the Corolla for being a fire hazard in a driver side head-on collision.

Mohinder Mann is a family attorney with the Mann Law Firm in San Jose, Calif. He said that "by placing the battery and electrical components in proximity to the fuel line, the Toyota Corolla is designed to be a potentially explosive device upon a driver side head-on collision leaving you vulnerable to being trapped and burned to death. Singh was trapped by the seatbelt and burned to death in front of his son and bystanders. Imagine the horror of watching your child or loved one burned to death if you could not unlatch the seatbelt."

The lawsuit also alleges that Toyota failed to follow the standards used by most American car manufacturers when it designed the Corolla's seatbelt latch.

Attorney Lou Franecke of the Franecke Law Group in San Rafael, Calif., says that "Toyota is one of the few remaining manufacturers still using a rigid metal seatbelt latch in their Corolla that bends and makes it impossible to unlatch the seatbelt and escape the vehicle. Toyota never tested their seatbelt design to see if the latch would work properly in the real world."

According to Edmunds.com, the Toyota Corolla was introduced in the U.S. in 1968. It is highly rated in terms of reliability and fuel economy and is said to be "an excellent used-car buy if safety is a priority."

A research of faulty designs and recalls for Toyota Corolla found no online information suggesting complaints or faulty designs related to seatbelts. In online article "Toyota Announces Largest Recall in Japanese History," Toyota recalled about 1.4 million cars in October 2005 because of trouble with the headlight switching systems. The recalled vehicles involved 16 models, including the Corolla, manufactured between May 2000 and August 2002. The article says the recall was the biggest ever for a Japanese auto maker. Toyota's previous record recall was in 1999, when the company recalled 797,707 vehicles.

Sources:

Press release, "Franecke Law Group Begins Opening Arguments Tomorrow In a Jury Trial Which Will Determine if Toyota Motor Corp is Responsible for the Burning Death of a California Father;" http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/11/prweb571732.htm

Edmunds; http://www.edmunds.com/toyota/corolla/review.html

Article, "Toyota Announces Largest Recall in Japanese History;" http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/News/articleId=107619