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Cars older than 10 years are in the most defect-related crashes

On Behalf of | May 22, 2020 | Car Accidents |

Residents of Kentucky who own vehicles older than 10 years should know that older vehicles cause the majority of car crashes where defective equipment is involved. This is what the Ohio Highway Patrol found out after analyzing the past three years’ worth of defect-related crashes in the state.

Specifically, 56% of defect-related crashes in that period were caused by model year 1999-2008 vehicles and 24% by model year 2009-2018 vehicles. As for the most common causes of these accidents, they were tire blowouts and brake failure. Blown tires accounted for 42% of those defect-related crashes that ended in fatality.

There are benefits to keeping an older vehicle. A car can last some 15 years and even run for up to 300,000 miles. Besides, newer vehicles are expensive, and the same goes for maintenance. Newer vehicles typically come with cameras, sensors and other electronics that can be costly to replace. Yet the danger in owning an older car, says the Ohio HP, is that owners tend to neglect routine maintenance: hence the blowouts and brake failures.

The Ohio Insurance Institute says that the average age of vehicles in the state is 11.8 years, which is up from 9.6 years in 2002. Experts encourage car owners to always get maintenance and, despite the initial cost, repair issues before they grow.

Pursuing a personal injury case after a defect-related car crash can be tricky since drivers are not always aware of every defect. It can also be tricky to determine whether drivers had a reasonable amount of time to fix a defect they were aware of. These questions must be asked in order to establish negligence. To see, then, if they have a valid case on their hands, victims may hire a lawyer. The lawyer might bring in crash investigators to assist.