Court Affirms Dismissal of Product Liability Claim Over Absence of Driver-Assistance Features

This product liability action centered on a fatal auto accident; a head-on collision that the plaintiff claimed could have been prevented if the vehicle had been equipped with a “lane departure” warning or other driver-assistance feature. The trial court granted the defendant’s request for summary judgment, and the Appellate Division affirmed, finding that the vehicle was not defectively designed as a matter of law. 

Notably, there were several driver-assistance systems available at the time the vehicle was manufactured, which the plaintiff’s expert opined would have prevented the collision, but the court was unpersuaded. 

A manufacturer’s duty under New Jersey law is to provide a reasonably fit, suitable and safe product, not a product with all technologically feasible safety features. Notably, the vehicle complied with all mandatory motor vehicle safety standards, and the court declined to impose a duty to include “every known safety device.” 

The court also applied the statutory defense of Section 3(a)(2) of the Products Liability Act. Under that provision, a product is not defective if its allegedly unsafe characteristic is inherent in the product and is known to the ordinary consumer or user. Because the ordinary user of an automobile recognizes the need to maintain their lane of travel and that crossing into an oncoming lane is unsafe, and because the inclusion of a driver-assistance feature would not have eliminated the risk of an accident, the court found that this statutory defense applied.

In short, the Appellate Division affirmed the trial court and found that the vehicle was “reasonably safe” as a matter of law, despite the absence of available driver-assistance systems.  

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