An average of 115 people die every day in automobile accidents in the United States. That translates into one every 13 minutes. Causes vary widely, from defective equipment to hazardous road conditions to reckless or impaired drivers. If a person is injured or killed in a car accident that was not his or her fault, there may be grounds for a personal injury or wrongful death suit.

Defective Equipment May Involve a Class Action Suit

Often the injury or death is caused by a defective auto part. Tires and brakes are the parts most commonly cited. If it can be proven that the part had a defect, you are entitled to collect damages from everyone involved in the design, manufacture, distribution and sale of the part. If the defect was in the design and affected all parts produced rather than an isolated unit, you might want to investigate a class action suit.

More than 8,000 traffic accidents a year involving death or serious bodily injury are the result of tire failures. Many of these tire failures are caused by manufacturing or design defects. The most dangerous and best known form of tire-related injury is tire tread separation. This defect was present in the Bridgestone/Firestone tires mounted on the Ford Explorer in 2000-2001. The defect was linked to the deaths of 271 people and thousands of accidents. More than 25 million tires were recalled and replaced. The class action lawsuits that were brought against Firestone tires led to a settlement of almost 150 million dollars.

Class action lawsuits can be brought when a significant number of people (the number varies from case to case) bring essentially the same complaint against the same entity. Class action suits must also meet the requirements of "predominance" and "superiority." Predominance means that issues shared by all members of the class predominate over issues affecting only individual members. Superiority means that the class action must be shown to be the best way of resolving the conflict.