Steve Barnard did not know when he buckled the lap belt on his 1991 Subaru Legacy that it had a design defect allowing it to expand when subjected to foreseeable forces. Subaru, however, did have knowledge of the problem, and the cure, but took no corrective action.
Lynn Johnson and Steve Bough represented Mr. Barnard's family in their lawsuit, filed in Lewis and Clark County, Montana, against Subaru claiming that the vehicle's restraint system was defectively designed. Mr. Barnard and his two children were traveling on Highway 12 near Helena, Montana when their car left the highway and rolled over. Mr. Barnard was killed in the crash. The Montana Highway Patrolman testified that Mr. Barnard swerved to avoid an animal.
The Subaru lap belt had a feature known variously in the automotive industry as "rip stitching," "load limiting system" or an "energy management loop," in which several inches of the seatbelt webbing are folded over and stitched to the belt. In an accident, the stitching rips, allowing the seatbelt webbing to expand up to an additional six inches. In Mr. Barnard's rollover, the extra webbing allowed him to be partially ejected from the vehicle and then killed as the car rolled over him.
Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard ("FMVSS") 209 requires the belts to be designed to remain on the pelvis under all conditions, including rollovers. Defendant's own expert testified that "you would like the lap belt to be as snug as possible." FMVSS 209 also sets elongation requirements for seatbelts. If rip stitching is used, manufacturers are exempt from the elongation requirements. The industry and the federal government have known for years of the potential for severe injury and death when rip stitching is used on lap belts.
Volvo of America, in a 1980 official comment to proposed changes in FMVSS 209, warned that without limits on the amount of rip stitching, excessive elongation would occur and the belt would not provide protection in a rollover accident. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration responded by saying Volvo's concerns were unfounded and "it is not likely the manufacturers will design load limiting systems that will elongate beyond the limits specified in Standard Number 209... . If a load limiting belt design elongates to the extent that it would provide no protection in rollover accidents, it will also not provide any protection in frontal crashes... . Manufacturers should be cognitive of the point made by Volvo, however, during the development of their systems." Despite notice of the potential defect, Subaru's engineers designed a seatbelt with rip stitching that allowed for partial ejection when deployed.
The settlement terms are confidential, however, the family believes that their efforts were successful. Our firm also protected other litigants by requiring that Subaru agree to a sharing-protective- order which allows our firm to retain the manufacturer's protected documents and share them with lawyers handling similar cases.
