This case involves an alleged defect in the design of the ball joint on a car, which initiated a lawsuit against the automobile company under state-level Lemon manufacturing laws. The Plaintiff, a thirty-two-year-old man, was a rear passenger in a car along with a friend. Before the accident happened, the car was traveling at seventy-miles-per-hour in the inside passing lane on the highway. The driver of the car heard a loud “pop” from the front of the car and then he lost control of the vehicle. The driver tried to pump the brakes and tried to steer left and right to regain control of the car, but he was unable to do so. The driver heard another loud “pop” come from the rear of the car and then the car veered into the median where it rolled over four times. The plaintiff and his friend who were in the back seat were ejected from the car. The plaintiff sustained a significant head injury that left him with significant cognitive deficits and partial paralysis. The plaintiff was left totally disabled for the rest of his life because of the accident.
Question(s) For Expert Witness
Can a defect in the design of the ball joint of a car cause the lower control arm of the steering system to fracture and cause a rollover?
Expert Witness Response
There is a chance that if the ball joint of a car is not designed properly, the lower control arm of the car’s steering system may break. This may cause one of the car’s tires to blow out and may cause the driver to lose control of the car and a rollover is possible. The ball joint of a car is a critical part of the car’s steering mechanism. The ball joint attaches the wheel hub, which the wheel and tire are mounted to, to the rest of the car’s suspension. A car may have two or four ball joints on the front wheels. All ball joints connect the wheel hubs to the rest of the car’s suspension. If there is a problem with a car’s ball joint, the driver of the car may notice a loud sound coming from the vehicle. If a car’s ball joint has defects in the plastic bearing and rubber boot, this can cause the ball joint to become filled with dirt and grit which may cause the plastic bearing to wear down and become loose over time. This looseness of the ball joint may cause the neck of the lower arm control to progressively bend upward and later break, and this causes the ball to be pulled out of the cup of the ball joint. A loosening of the ball joint in a car can cause a serious accident or a rollover because the car will suffer a loss in vehicle steering control.
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