NHTSA Considers Standards for Heated Vehicle Seats
Heated vehicle seats can be a wonderful source of comfort in frigid temperatures or when one is suffering from acute or chronic pain. However, when seat heating elements don’t work correctly, they can cause serious burns, as some Missouri defective vehicle attorneys have seen.
That’s why the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) are looking into seat heating elements more closely, according to a recent report. The NHTSA and the SAE plan to look at how heating elements are designed and what their maximum temperature cutoffs should be - and, if necessary, to create regulations that keep these elements at a safe temperature.
The investigation comes after several reports by drivers and passengers who suffered serious burns from heating elements in their vehicle’s seats. In the past 20 years, the NHTSA has received over 1,260 complaints about seat-heating defects, resulting in 287 injuries and over 500 vehicle fires.
At particular risk of injury are people with impaired sensation or no feeling at all in their lower limbs, who may not realize the heater is on or what temperature it is set to until a serious burn has already occurred. However, anyone can be injured by a seat’s heating device if a defect allows the device to overheat to the point of causing harm.
If you’ve been injured by a defective vehicle or vehicle part, injury attorney John Page can help. Contact us today for a free and confidential case evaluation.
