Major Safety Issue with Melting Dashboards
A man from Florida has expressed concern about the fact that his dashboard is melting and manufacturers refuse to treat it as a safety issue.
Zach Reddy first noticed the problem in his 2008 Nissan Altima around a year ago, when his fingers would stick to the dashboard if he touched it, and marks from his fingers would be embedded in the dashboard. He alleges that when he is driving into the sun, as the melting dash becomes shiny, he is blinded and cannot see the road ahead.
It appears that he is not alone and millions of cars have the same problem and although some manufacturers have agreed to repair the problem, the vast majority of drivers are still waiting for new dashboards to become available.
There is already a class action filed against Nissan for melting dashboards and last year Toyota agreed to replace over four million melting dashboards in their older models although it appears that has not been carried out as they do not have any replacements available at this time.
In addition Mazda has sent letters to around 300,000 car owners offering to repair their melting dashboards having originally refused to assist with the problem. The vehicles involved include the Mazda 6, manufactured from 2009 to 2013 and the Mazda 3 from 2010. However, it is not clear when repairs will begin.
Since 2012, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has had over 300 complaints about the sticky and shiny dashboards across a whole range of car makes and models with most of the complaints coming from those states which are warm such as Florida, California and Texas.
However, as drivers are waiting for their dashboards to be replaced, there continues to be a safety issue due to the glare from the sun making them unable to see the road ahead. A short term fix is to place a towel across the top of the dash to prevent the shiny surface reflecting and causing glare.
Attorney John H. (Jack) Hickey and his team handle a wide range of cases, including but not limited to cruise ship accidents, admiralty and maritime accident cases, medical malpractice, wrongful death, premises liability, railroad accidents and car accidents. We represent victims from all over the nation, the world and the state of Florida.