The Associated
Press reported last month that Ford Motor Company has recalled nearly
500,000 of its Escape and Maverick sports utility vehicles. The announcement
from Ford stated that the recall is based on sticking gas pedals that can cause car accidents. The worldwide recall affects the 2001 through 2004
model years that are powered by 3-litre V-6 engines with cruise control.
The National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration has received 68 complaints about the
problem, including 13 crashes crashes, nine injuries and one death. A teenage girl
died when an Escape crashed in Arizona in January. It’s the third recall
in two weeks for the Escape, which was the top-selling SUV in the U.S. last
month. A week ago Ford recalled 11,500 of the all-new 2013 models with
1.6-litre engines because the fuel lines can crack and leak gasoline, causing
fires. A few days before that, it recalled 10,000 2013 Escapes to fix carpet
padding that could interfere with braking.
NHTSA said investigators would look into whether
the sticky throttles could have been caused by repairs made as part of a 2004
recall of the same vehicles. About 590,000 of the vehicles were recalled in
December of 2004 to fix an accelerator cable defect, and NHTSA documents say
the repairs could have damaged the cruise control cable.
This is similar to the type of auto defect and
recall that Toyota made two (2) years ago, which involved sticky pedals, pedals
being caught in the carpet and sudden acceleration. This is good to see this
recalls as there are already a reported 68 complaints and 13 car accidents. Hopefully
this will prevent any future car accidents.
If you or someone you love has been injured in a Chicago car accident or believes they have aChicago auto defect case, then call Chicago personal injury attorney Aaron Bryant for a free consultation at 312-588-3384 or go to the firm
website at www.blgchicago.com.