The APLRC: Auto Product Liability from the Trenches
Along with the national agencies that regulate auto product liability, smaller local partners also keep an eye on automobile safety standards. One such local agency is the Automotive Product Liability Resource Center (APLRC.com), located in sunny Santa Barbara, CA.
The goal of APLRC.com is to persuade the automobile manufacturers that it is more cost-efficient to manufacture safer automobiles than to pay the high costs of product liability litigation. To that end, the agency serves as a nationwide collaboration of attorneys, experts and victims to increase successful plaintiff verdicts in automobile safety lawsuits.
Visitors to the site will see that the APLRC is the brainchild of two children of a former auto safety worker who helped pioneer some of the major improvements in auto safety, such as the airbag. According to these individuals, there’s still a long way to go in what automakers can provide for the safety of drivers.
The APLRC is sponsoring what they call a rollover workshop to help deal with a startling statistic. According to the website, rollover accidents produce 10,000 motor vehicle fatalities annually. Though driver behavior can contribute to rollover situations, efforts such as the workshop will promote the collaboration of attorneys, safety experts and others in devising ways to handle the liability from a production end, encouraging automakers to add design with different centers of gravity or strengthening roof structure to prevent rollover injuries and fatalities on the road.
For more on what this small organization is doing to encourage auto safety, keep an eye on the web page at http://www.aplrc.com/index.htm.
