Consumer Expectation Plays Key Role in $3.1 Million Exploding Tire Verdict in Pittsburgh
Jurors found that the product that caused the plaintiff's injury did not perform as safely as its user reasonably assumed it would.
September 30, 2021 at 07:09 PM
3 minute read
Products LiabilityAn Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, jury awarded a $3.1 million products liability verdict based largely on its answer to the question of what a consumer can reasonably expect from a tire—in this case, that the tire in question would not explode during use.
Following a two-week trial involving expert testimony on the various aspects of a tire's design and manufacturing, the jury's Wednesday decision came down to the less technical matter of a consumer expectation test, which found that the product that caused the plaintiff's injury did not perform as safely as its user reasonably assumed it would.
The trial addressed the liability of Kumho Tires USA in a 2014 trucking accident that left driver Milford Stevens with a number of bodily and neurological injuries. Stevens had been driving a dump truck on a public roadway when one of the truck's KTUSA-manufactured tires peeled apart and caused Stevens to lose control of and crash the vehicle. A police report found that the failed tire was the primary cause of the accident.
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