Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C.

The Yamaha Rhino’s unsafe design makes it unreasonably dangerous. So alleges the lawsuit filed by a Texas woman whose daughter was injured when the Rhino she was in rolled over, pinning her legs underneath. Her lawsuit is among more than 50 lawsuits nationwide filed against Yamaha Motor Company.

The woman filed her lawsuit in January in U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Texas, Marshall Division. According to a report in the Southeast Texas Record, her suit, like the other suits filed against Yamaha throughout the county, alleges that the “Rhino is excessively prone to tip over even at low speeds, on flat or slight grade terrain, and while conducting safe turns.”

The suit suggests that Yamaha manufactures the Rhino knowing that the ATV’s instability and lack of safety features makes it a dangerous ride for passengers. She argues that the ATV not only has a narrow track width and high center of gravity, but that its heavy, unpadded roll cage can harm passengers rather than them during a rollover incident.

The Southeast Texas Record points out that Yamaha sent letters to Yamaha owners in 2007 which instructed them to keep their arms and legs inside the vehicle in the event of a rollover. What Yamaha doesn’t explain in the letter is how passengers and their children can recall these words of advice in the middle of a terrifying rollover. Nor does it describe how passengers can defy the laws of physics during an accident, preventing limbs from exiting the ATV as it tips or tumbles.

The suit seeks damages for medical expenses, lost wages, loss of earning capacity, and pain and mental anguish. It also seeks punitive damages of an unspecified amount, alleging that Yamaha acted “in a malicious, wanton, willful, fraudulent and reckless manner evincing such an entire want of care as to raise the presumption of a conscious indifference to the consequences.”

More than 100,000 Rhinos have been sold since Yamaha started selling them in 2003.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 10th, 2009 at 8:55 am and is filed under News, Yamaha Rhino Rollover Links. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.