Imagine your car careening hundreds of feet into a ravine, trapping you inside for nearly a week and permanently disabling you because the car’s safety features failed. That is what a woman is saying happened to her in a lawsuit against General Motors.
In 2009, the plaintiff, now 45, was driving her 2009 Chevrolet Malibu when her car somehow left the road and went down the steep ravine. A photograph provided in an ABC News article shows that the car landed upside-down, and was totally crushed by the impact.
The driver was trapped inside, her legs and brain badly injured. Her only way to try to alert passers-by was to write messages on panels of an umbrella. Her ordeal lasted six days. Lacking food, water and medical attention, she was near death when two people finally spotted her and called police.
The woman survived, but experienced the loss of her lower legs and a traumatic brain injury. Two months after her accident, she received a letter from GM notifying her about a recall to repair her car’s power steering, electronic stability control and panic braking assist.
