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Miami Attorneys Reach $6.2 Million Verdict Against Mazda

5 May 2000

Miami Attorneys Reach $6.2 Million Verdict Against Mazda Motor of America Inc. and Takata Corp. In Faulty Seatbelt Case

    MIAMI, May 4 A Fort Myers jury has awarded $6.2 million in
damages to Mario and Mayra Castro whose son, Mario Roberto Castro, was injured
in a 1997 automobile accident as a result of a faulty seatbelt.
    Miami attorneys Don Russo and David Heffernan, who represented the
Castros, argued that the seatbelt was defective because it disengaged and
failed to restrain their son, resulting in him being ejected from their 1988
Mazda MX-6 automobile.
    The collision, which took place on U.S. 41 in Fort Myers three years ago,
occurred when another automobile failed to yield the right of way to Castro
and struck his vehicle causing it to roll out of control.
    Although Castro was wearing his seatbelt at the time of the accident, it
became unlatched during the collision and rollover, causing him to be ejected
from the Mazda MX-6.  Upon impact his spine was shattered, among other
significant bodily injuries, immediately rendering him a paraplegic.
    "It was undisputed that Castro would not have sustained these traumatic
injuries if he were not ejected from his automobile," noted Russo, one of
Florida's leading medical malpractice attorneys and partner in Russo and
Heffernan, P.A.  "Takata's design defect of the TK52 series seatbelt caused
partial engagement, a condition upon which the belt appears to be latched, but
with force such as that in a rollover becomes disengaged, failing to restrain
the occupant."
    Takata Corp. is the manufacturer and designer of the TK52 series seatbelt
that was installed in the 1988 Mazda MX-6 automobile.
    Russo and Heffernan successfully argued the case with Elizabeth Russo and
Phillip Parrish of Russo Parrish Appellate Firm, P.A., specialists in
negligence, products liability, commercial litigation, admiralty, securities
litigation, civil appeals, insurance law, class actions and civil trial
support.