News reports and lawsuits continue to inform us of the extreme dangers associated with the Yamaha Rhino. This vehicle is unstable and fails to provide appropriate protection to its occupants. Now, we have learned that Yamaha executives not only knew about these dangers, but at least in one instance, were injured by their own product.

The Rhino's instability, and therefore its propensity to roll over, is a result of its narrow wheel base and high center of gravity. The law calls these "design defects" because the manner in which the product is intended to be made is inherently dangerous no matter how safely you operate it. Once the machine rolls over, occupants can be ejected or partially ejected because the seat belts tend to uncoil and the vehicle lacks doors. In fact, Yamaha recently has been scrutinized by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, and this pressure has resulted in Yamaha agreeing to widen the wheel base and install partial doors for free.

Now, CBS News has reported that, back in July, 2002, a Rhino tipped over during tests while being driven by the president of a US subsidiary of Yamaha, who was accompanied by the Yamaha vice president in charge of Rhino development. The president apparently suffered a foot injury, and the vice president subsequently requested "an update on instability of vehicle for future liability cases" according to minutes of a Yamaha meeting.

Once again, we see an example of large corporations that knowingly place defectively designed products into the market place where people who don't know about the dangers of these design deficiencies are now being exposed to death or serious injuries which adversely alter their lives forever. These companies then just build in more money in their pricing decisions to take care of "future liability cases" rather than to voluntarily correct the dangerous problems they have created.

With any lawsuit, there is a limited time in which you must file a lawsuit in order to protect your rights. If you were injured because of Rhino rollover, please contact our firm today.