Failure to wear seat belt suspected in fatal Alamo crash

An Alamo man was killed in a July 4 one-vehicle crash, and the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) says the victim’s failure to wear a safety belt may have contributed to his death.

According to a DPS news release, the crash occurred around midnight on Interstate Highway 2 near FM 493 in Donna.

The report states 45-year-old Pedro Garcia was driving west on the interstate in a silver 2005 Nissan Armada, when “for unknown reasons, (the driver) veered off the roadway and drove onto the westbound IH-2 Frontage Road, where the Nissan struck a utility pole, and rolled over.”

The release goes on to say that Garcia was ejected during the crash, and suggested he was thrown from the vehicle because he did not have a seat belt on.

The reports concludes with a warning to all drivers about the danger of not wearing a safety belt while driving.

“According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, wearing a seat belt reduces the risk of dying by 45% for people in the front seat of passenger cars. For those in pickups, seat belts reduce the risk of dying by 60%. Your seat belt is designed to keep you from being thrown into the dashboard, windshield, or even onto the road,” DPS said in the release.

Defective seat belts and personal injury compensation

A recent NHTSA study found that between 1960 and 2012, seat belts saved 329,715 lives. That’s more lives saved than all other vehicle safety technologies combined, including air bags, energy-absorbing steering assemblies, and electronic stability control.

But despite the advances in technology and manufacturing standards, defective seat belts still cause a large number of deaths and injuries every year.

People can be injured by a defective seat belt in two main ways. The strap on a poorly-manufactured seat belt can fray prematurely. A seat belt with defective webbing will not be strong enough to keep from tearing when someone is in an accident.

The most common defect is found in the seat belt latch. A defective latch can lead drivers to believe they are secured in their seat, but they really aren’t. Sometimes a police accident report will state that the accident victim(s) were not buckled in, when in reality they were buckled in, but the defective seat belt failed during the crash impact.

How to prove a seat beat contributed to an injury in a Texas car crash

Determining whether a safety belt is defective is a fact-intensive process. It requires the analysis of trained experts, and you will need to retain one to prove that the safety belt was negligently designed or manufactured to the court.

You need the J. Gonzalez Law Firm on your side. J. Gonzalez knows that seat belt manufacturers will employ a large number of attorneys and crash experts in an effort to defeat claims just like yours. The attorneys at the J. Gonzalez Law Firm have decades of experience representing victims of defectively designed or manufactured seat belts and safety seats.

We are available any time, day or night via this website, or you can set up your initial free consultation regarding your injuries at 1-800-CAR-CRASH.

Source: https://myrgv.com/local-news/2024/07/04/alamo-man-ejected-from-vehicle-killed-overnight-thursday/