Upshur County, TX — June 21, 2023, Angelena Howard was fatally injured as the result of a car accident at around 5:45 p.m. along West Broadway Street.
Authorities said in their preliminary statements that the crash happened at the intersection of Broadway Street and South Meason Street.
Investigators said that 19-year-old Angelena Howard was in a Ford Ecosport said to be going northbound on Meason. At Broadway, while crossing the intersection, it appears an eastbound truck pulling a trailer crashed into the left side of the Ford. This forced the Ford to spin out, and authorities say the driver’s side door was ripped off, leading to a seatbelt failure. As a result, Howard was thrown from the vehicle, sustaining fatal injuries. The other driver was not hurt.
Commentary by Attorney Michael Grossman
Any time that authorities are talking about safety features on a car failing during a crash, that’s a giant red flag and worthy of a further investigation. While there are some crashes where the force and angle of impact are enough that no safety feature could survive, there are also crashes where these devices fail because of a manufacturing or design defect.
How does a proper investigation confirm or rule out a manufacturer’s defect? First, the vehicle is taken apart and examined in a laboratory setting. After that, accident reconstructionists laser map the crash scene. Finally, they take the data they have and run crash simulations to determine the likelihood that the vehicle’s safety equipment performed as expected in a particular crash. If it doesn’t, then the manufacturer may be to be blame.
The problem most people run into is that most investigators don’t have the training or equipment to distinguish between an unavoidable failure and a defect. This means that every year, untold numbers of accidents result in death or injury that would have otherwise been survivable had car manufacturers done their job correctly.
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