Safety advocates and burn victims are upset with auto-maker Chrysler. Last year the government told the company to recall more than two and a half million jeeps because of a potentially deadly default but the company refused, offered up an alternative to the recall but hasn’t followed through with that either.
WTHR in Indianapolis reports Ana Pina, a woman who says she was burned because of a defect in her jeep. Pina is not alone. In fact, just two months after the government told Chrysler to recall the older model jeeps another man was badly burned. “I had no idea. I didn’t know there was a problem,” Gregory Burgett tells WTHR.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration investigated more than fifty one fatalities over a three year period, all fatalities due to fires. They found that fuel tanks on the older style jeeps are located inches from the bumper, making the position of the fuel tank more vulnerable. NHTSA formally requested a safety recall for the grand Cherokee years 1993 to 1998 and on the liberty years 2002 to 2007. Chrysler said no, arguing the government data is flawed and there are no defects. Chrysler did agree to a limited recall, about one and a half million grand Cherokees and Liberties, but the solution didn’t impressive drivers.
“The trailer hitch is a sham,” a safety advocate says of the proposal. Chrysler says the hitch provides more protection to the back of the jeep and that it would contact dealers in July about beginning the recall. Pina, the woman severely burned did have a trailer hitch on her vehicle at the time she was hit. Her attorney also argues that Anna did not suffer one broken bone in the crash, something she would have been able to walk away from had the car not been engulfed in flames.
Since July 2013, Chrysler has done nothing, no recalls. WTHR says they continue to call the NHSTA about the recall, no phone calls answered however an insider tells them future action, possibly another recall may be coming in the future.
Safety advocates pushing for Chrysler to recall older models say that since 2005 the new Cherokee and Liberty designs have moved the fuel tank, since then there have not been any known deaths due to fire in a rear impact.
