Emily Sortor  |  February 17, 2020

Category: Auto News

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Seat back failure can result in serious injury.Loose federal regulations may have allowed seat back safety standards to be lower than they should be. This means that many cars on the market may be at risk for seat back failure.

What Is Seat Back Failure?

Seat back failure is an occurrence in which the back of the front seek collapses during a collision. This can pose a major safety risk because the seats are a major safety feature of a vehicle. When they function properly, they can prevent a driver or passenger from being thrown back in a vehicle. When a seat back fails, a collision can result in serious injuries or death.

A CBS investigation reported that over 100 people have been severely injured or killed in collisions involving seat back failures since 1989. Tragically, most of those people injured or killed were children.

What Are Some of the Risks of Seat Back Failure?

Serious injuries can result from a car collision, even if all seat backs are working properly. However, risk of serious injury increases when a seat back fails. 

If there is just a driver and a front seat passenger in the car, these two people can develop injuries like spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries, broken bones, paralysis, or might even die in an accident in which the seat back fails.

The risks increase if a person is sitting in the back seat. On top of the injuries that can be suffered by those in the front seats, those in the back can also be injured in the event of a seat back failure. The back seat passengers may be struck or crushed by the front seat being thrown on top of them. 

Babies and children seated in the back of the car during a seat back failure may be particularly at risk for injuries or death in a seat back failure collisions.

Are Safety Standards in Place to Prevent Seat Back Failures?

In 2016, CBS investigated seat back failures. Reportedly, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) has not updated safety standards for front seats since 1968.

CBS also reported that the NHTSA has been aware that an update was needed since the 1970s, but has not yet made changes. Reportedly, efforts to update standards were officially halted in 2004. The NHTSA stated that “additional research and analysis” were needed before safety standards would be updated.

Additionally, auto makers were reportedly also aware, but failed to fully update safety standards. In the 1960s, standards for seat back safety were extremely rare, and happily, all cars on the market do exceed these standards.

However, CBS says that the seats of many vehicles still fail during crash tests, indicating that they would put real people at risk if they were to be involved in a crash on the road. Unfortunately, this means that a range of cars could have this kind of issue, putting many drivers and passengers at risk.

Why Have Standards not Been Updated to Better Protect the Public?

The CBS investigation into seat back safety says that the NHTSA explained that it is challenging to upgrade the safety standards for seat backs because seat back failure accidents are very rare. Forbes went on to state that the NHTSA does not want to update seat back standards because any updates might be subjected to criticism and might lead to more problems.

The same report indicated that making seats safer would not be very costly, and could save lives. However, a seat back failure victim interviewed by Forbes speculated that the standards have not been updated because car makers want to maximize their profits.

Join a Free Vehicle Safety Class Action Lawsuit Investigation

If you own a vehicle that you believe has a safety defect and you are outside of the warranty period or you believe the defect should be covered by the warranty and it’s not, or you or a family member have been injured by a safety related defect, you may qualify to join this vehicle safety defect class action lawsuit investigation.

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This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.

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4 thoughts onIs Your Car at Risk for Seat Back Failure?

  1. Stephanie Collins says:

    Crystal Butler who started the CBS investigation into seatback collapse by FMVSS 301 fuel integrity testing of the Pinto, has victim owned discovery for the real world testing of FMVSS 207.
    Mark Stone AB889 was written on 2 victim owned discovery cases.
    Seatback collapse
    Remington Riffle trigger defect
    AB889 was going to the Senate floor June 23,2016 for the compliance and reporting. (Gun control sit in)
    2020 FOIA 552(b) gagging by courts is written in reporting requirements.

  2. Robert Goudin says:

    Add me please

  3. PHYLLIS A KEENE says:

    Please add me. What year & models of cars are at risk. Thank you & please let me know.

  4. Rachelle Gilbert says:

    How do we know what cars are a part of this?
    How scary I have twin toddlers.
    Help?

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