Rental Car Companies Put Consumers at Risk

Over the years, we have seen a somewhat continuous stream of safety recalls regarding cars issued to the public. Most of the recalls come after many serious injuries have occurred, but are still important in eliminating the cause of potentially dangerous malfunctions within the car. Although for most consumers it is a logical reaction to bring in a car to be fixed if a recall is issued for it, there is an important segment of the transportation sector that has apparently ignored the warnings: the rental car industry. Christopher Jensen of the New York Times Automotive Blog has this report:

“In the petition filed with the F.T.C. , the two consumer groups and Ms. Houck said that Enterprise had no right to pick and choose recalls, that consumers needed to be protected and that all recalled vehicles should be parked until they were fixed.

Two of the victims of a failure by Enterprise to carry out a recall were the Houck sisters: Raechel, 24, and Jacqueline, 20. On Oct. 7, 2004, they were killed in Monterey County, Calif., after a fire broke out under the hood of their car and they collided with an 18-wheeler.

Their vehicle was a 2004 Chrysler PT Cruiser, which had been recalled early in June because power steering fluid could leak and cause a fire in the engine compartment. That recall covered about 438,000 PT Cruisers from the 2001–5 model years.”

Although rental car companies are not bound by law (yet) to fix all of their recalled vehicles, it is a matter of public safety that regulations should be immediately instated to ensure the safety of the vehicles on the road. There have been too many instances where safety issues with cars were suppressed or ignored, as detailed in our occasional mini-series regarding car safety, and with the problems that Toyota experienced early in the year still fresh in the mind of all drivers, policy makers should recognized that safety is not privilege in our country, but rather an expectation that all companies, whether they be the car manufacturers or the rental car companies, provide products and services that are the fruit of the businesses’ best efforts to guarantee our safety when we get behind the wheel of a vehicle.

At PERENICH The Law Firm, we are proud to be part of the same Civil Justice System that has brought protection and peace of mind to every motorist on the roads in the country and here in Clearwater and the greater Tampa Bay area. As your personal injury and car accident lawyers, we will serve you in times when corporations willfully put you and your loved ones at risk, and through our combined efforts, help create a safer society for the rest of the nation as well.