On March 31, 2009, Yamaha Motor Corp. USA suspended sales of its Rhino off-road vehicles Tuesday and a repair program after the Consumer Product Safety Commission determined that they had been involved in more than 50 accidents resulting in 46 deaths and hundreds of injuries. As noted in the Los Angeles Times, the commission’s acting chairwoman, Nancy Nord, said she became so concerned about the number of deaths and injuries associated with the Rhino vehicles that “I directed staff to step up their investigative efforts.” More than two-thirds of the reported accidents were rollovers, many involving turns at low speeds and on level terrain, the commission statement said.

The reporter spoke to Heidi Crow of Winsborough, Texas and a client of Lieff Cabraser. Ms. Crow’s 9-year-old son, Jeremy Todd, known as J.T., died in a Rhino rollover accident June 22, 2007. Crow stated:

“This is the first time that I’ve felt like all the work and everything that we’ve been doing over the last 21 months has paid off. There’s been a lot of lives lost that could have been prevented, but the changes are being made, so I’m happy. These repairs address the Rhino’s design defects. If we make it wider, then we make it more stable and we make it safer and we save people’s lives, and that’s what this is all about.”