Jeep Class Action Targets Defective Gear Shifter

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The makers of the Jeep Grand Cherokee face a class action lawsuit over allegations of a defective gear shifter design.

The Jeep Cherokee lawsuit holds that some Jeep Grand Cherokees have a dangerously defective gear shift—and that the car’s manufacturer concealed the defect.

According to the Jeep Grand Cherokee lawsuit, “one of the most basic safety features in every car is the gear shifter that causes a stationary car to remain stationary, unless and until an operator wants the car to move.”

However, the Jeep Cherokee lawsuit holds that these vehicles fail in this regard due to a design flaw.

Allegedly, Jeep Grand Cherokees, Dodge Chargers, and Chrysler 300s have a ZF shifter which is allegedly “dangerously defective because there is no tactile or position feedback to the operator as to whether the car has been placed into the safe-to-exit ‘park’ gear and there is no safety override that automatically puts the car in ‘park’ if the driver’s door is open and pressure is taken off the foot break,” according to the text of the lawsuit.

“In making these vehicles, Fiat Chrysler failed at adequately and responsibly designing one of the most basic safety features – the gear shifter,” said Steve Berman, managing partner of Hagens Berman. “The current shifters in these affected vehicles leave drivers with insufficient feedback to tell whether the car has actually been placed in park before they exit the vehicle, and it does not have a safety override that automatically puts the car in ‘park’ if the driver’s door is opened and pressure taken off the foot brake.”

More specifically, this means that parked vehicles can roll away because the car is not in park, the lawsuit claims.

The Jeep Grand Cherokee lawsuit further alleges that hundreds of accidents have been caused by this defect, including the recent, tragic death of Star Trek actor Anton Yelchin. Per the complaint “well over 300 accidents have been reported, causing dozens of serious injuries, and potentially the death of Anton Yelchin.”

The Jeep lawsuit holds that the young actor was killed when his 2015 Jeep Cherokee rolled down his driveway and crushed him against his brick mailbox. Yelchin was best known from roles like young Kyle Reece in Terminator: Salvation and the roll of Ensign Pavel Chekov from J. J. Abrams’s reboot of the Star Trek franchise.

The Jeep Grand Cherokee lawsuit holds that the design defect is avoidable. To back this assertion, the complaint points out that BMW uses a similar electronic/digital gear shift system that avoids this problem. BMW’s electronic shift levers, the complaint goes on, automatically shift the gears into the “park” position under certain circumstances.

The lawsuit lists several years, makes, and models of vehicles that may contain the alleged defect including:

• 2014 – 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokees
• 2012 – 2014 Dodge Chargers
• 2012 – 2014 Chrysler 300s

According to the class action, the car manufacturer has allegedly been aware of this issue since 2015, yet only recently initiated the process of warning customers and issuing recalls.

The Jeep Grand Cherokee lawsuit also holds that “every owner of a Defective Shifter Vehicle is at risk of accident, injury, or even death.” The complaint goes on to state that “nearly a million Defective Shifter Vehicles remain in unsuspecting owners’ driveways and garages.”

The Jeep Grand Cherokee lawsuit seeks temporary replacement vehicles, compensation for the cost of maintenance and repairs, as well as other types of compensation for potential Class Members.

Plaintiffs Deryl Wall, Justine Andollo, and Danielle and Joby Hackett are represented by Lee M. Gordon, Steve W. Berman and Thomas E. Loeser of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP.

The Jeep Grand Cherokee Defective Gear Shifter Class Action Lawsuit is Deryl Wall, et al. v. FCA USA LCC, Case No. 5:16-cv-01341, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Eastern Division.