W.L. Brown purchased a new large Chevrolet truck from Days Chevrolet. The truck
ID: 2713934 • Letter: W
Question
W.L. Brown purchased a new large Chevrolet truck from Days Chevrolet. The truck had been manufactured by General Motors Corporation. One month later, an employee of Brown’s was operating the truck when it ceased to function in rush-hour traffic on Interstate Highway 75 in the Atlanta suburbs. A defect within the alternator had caused a complete failure of the truck’s electrical system. The defect was caused by General Motor’s negligence in manufacturing the truck. When the alternator failed to operate, the truck came to rest in the right-hand lane of two north-bound lanes of freeway traffic. Because of the electrical failure, no blinking lights could be used to warn traffic of the danger. The driver, however, tried to motion traffic around the truck. Some time later, when the freeway traffic had returned to normal, the large Chevrolet truck was still motionless on the freeway. At approximately 6:00 p.m., a panel truck approached the stalled truck in the right-hand lane of traffic at freeway speed. Immediately behind the panel truck, Mr. Davis is driving a Volkswagen fastback, was unable to see the stalled truck. At the last moment, the driver of the panel truck saw the stalled truck and swerved into another lane to avoid it. Mr. Davis drove his Volkswagen into the stalled truck at freeway speed, causing his death. Mr. Davis’s wife brought a wrongful death action based on negligence against General Motors. Is there causation linking the negligence of the defendant to the fatal accident? Fully explain your answer.
Explanation / Answer
It was not reasonable for Mr. Davis’s wife to brought a wrongful death action based on negligence against General Motors.The truck was standing on freeway due to some defect does not mean General motors was responsible for the truck standing so long on the freeway and causing the accident.Yes it was right to say that the defect was caused due to some manufacturing defect in General motors manufacturing but General motors was responsible for the defect only and not any related activities that happened due to it.The truck could have been taken away from freeway by a carrier and would have been reported by the driver to carry it somewhere away from the freeway and also Mr. Davis’s fault was also there he could have avoided the accident if he would have been careful enough,General motors could have done nothing here,so The General motors could not be held responsible for whatever happened on the freeway.The driver should have taken the responsibility to take the truck away from freeway by whatever means and also there was some carelessness on Mr. Davis’s part.There is no causation linking the negligence of the defendant to the fatal accident.General motors do have causation for the defect that occurred and its their responsibility to remove the defect and they should not face the consequences for whatever happened due to that defect.
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