Tire Defect Causes Crash, Kills 6, Paralyzes 1, Jury Awards $12 Million

My personal injury litigation law practice in Atlanta has included a number of serious defective product cases. Among them have been tire defect cases.

Last week, a Texas jury returned a verdict of nearly $12 million against a tire maker after determining that a defective tire caused a wreck that killed six people and left a 12-year-old boy paralyzed.

The jury found that a manufacturing flaw in a Goodrich tire made by  Michelin North America contributed to the New Year’s Eve 2006 crash outside Matamoros, Mexico. A tire on a pickup truck separated from its tread, causing the vehicle to swerve into oncoming traffic, where it collided with another vehicle killing all six passengers inside the SUV.

One of our cases here in Georgia involves a tread separation of a tire from another manufacturer. Our experts concluded that the layers of the tire never properly adhered due to a defect in the manufacturing process. The tread separated on a college van loaded with a dozen cheerleaders, causing three deaths and one serious brain injury, as well as several lesser injuries. Our team of lawyers representing all the cheerleaders ultimately resolved the case for a total of $9.3 million before trial.

Ken Shigley is a Certified Civil Trial Advocate of the National Board of Trial Advocacy.  His law practice in Atlanta, Georgia, focuses on representing people who are catastrophically injured, and families of those killed, when companies violate rules designed for protection of public safety. Mr. Shigley has extensive experience representing parties in trucking and bus accidents, products liability, catastrophic personal injury, wrongful death, brain injury, spinal cord injury and burn injury cases. He has been listed as a “Super Lawyer” (Atlanta Magazine), among the “Legal Elite” (Georgia Trend Magazine), and in the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers (Martindale).  Currently he is a national board member of the American Association for Justice Interstate Trucking Litigation Group and treasurer of the 41,000 member State Bar of Georgia.

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