When Brake or Tire Failure Takes a Loved One, Families Deserve Answers

A family may be able to sue a vehicle maker or parts maker after a fatal brake or tire failure in California. The legal path is usually a wrongful death claim built on a product defect or negligence theory. This page explains how that claim works, who can file it, and what to protect early.

Short Answer: Can a Family Sue a Vehicle Maker After a Fatal Brake or Tire Failure?

A family may be able to bring a wrongful death claim that names a vehicle maker or parts maker when a brake or tire defect is believed to have caused a death. Whether a particular claim is viable depends on the facts of that case.

Losing someone in a crash is hard enough. Then a family learns the car may have failed on its own. Brakes can lose pressure. Tires can come apart at highway speed. When that happens, the question changes. It is no longer only about what another driver did. It is also about whether the vehicle or part was built and designed safely.

This page covers the legal basis, who can file, what evidence to protect, how fault and damages work, and the deadlines that matter most. Many families read this while a car sits in a tow yard and funeral plans still need to be made. That is a hard place to start. Going step by step can make the next choice clearer.

How California Product Liability Applies to Vehicles and Their Parts

A vehicle and its parts are products.

Defects usually fall into three groups. A manufacturing defect means one unit was built wrong, such as a brake line that was damaged or a tire with a weak belt. A design defect means the flaw is in the plan. If a whole model uses a brake layout that fails under normal use, the problem may reach every car built that way. A warning defect means the maker knew about a risk and did not give owners adequate warning.

California also asks whether a person acted with ordinary care. Under Civil Code § 1714, everyone is responsible for an injury occasioned to another by a want of ordinary care or skill in the management of their property or person. Cal. Civ. Code § 1714 reads: “(a) Everyone is responsible, not only for the result of his or her willful acts, but also for an injury occasioned to another by his or her want of ordinary care or skill in the management of his or her property or person, except so far as the latter has, willfully or by want of ordinary care, brought the injury upon himself or herself.”

Product liability and negligence can both matter. A wrongful death claim is the family’s way to recover for a death. Product liability is one theory that can reach a maker. Which theories fit depends on the evidence, and a lawyer reviews the facts to choose them.

Who Can Bring a Wrongful Death Claim in California

Under California law, a wrongful death claim may be brought by a surviving spouse, domestic partner, or children. Other people named in the statute can also qualify.

The main group is the decedent’s surviving spouse, domestic partner, and children, along with the issue of any deceased children. Intestate succession means the default inheritance rules. See Code of Civil Procedure § 377.60.

Other people can qualify too. A dependent putative spouse (the surviving spouse of a void or voidable marriage who is found by the court to have believed in good faith that the marriage to the decedent was valid) may bring the claim. Under Code of Civil Procedure § 377.60, stepchildren or parents may bring the claim if they were dependent on the decedent. Parents may also have standing without showing dependency, but only if the decedent left no surviving issue and the parents are among the persons who would be entitled to the decedent’s property by intestate succession. If the parents have died, the decedent’s legal guardians may bring the claim in their place, but only where the parents would have been entitled to bring it or where the guardians were dependent on the decedent. A minor may also bring the claim if the minor lived in the decedent’s household for the previous 180 days and depended on the decedent for at least half of their support.

The court decides how any award is divided among the people entitled to it. See Code of Civil Procedure § 377.61.

A family member who is unsure of their standing should raise the question early. Who has authority to act can affect how and when a claim is filed.

How Investigators Tell a Brake or Tire Failure Apart from Other Causes

Investigators decide whether a failure came from a defect, from poor maintenance, or from something else. They look at the part, its history, and the crash sequence.

For brakes, investigators look for fluid leaks, worn pads, cracked or failed lines, and parts that did not work as designed. For tires, they look at tread separation, sidewall damage, and blowouts. They also compare those signs with underinflation, overloading, and worn tread, which can cause tire failure too.

Maintenance and repair records matter a great deal. Service dates, shop invoices, and recent work on the brakes or tires can show what condition the vehicle was in before the crash.

Federal recall records can show whether a model or part had a known problem. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration keeps those records, and a recall can change what the investigation looks at.

Many of these answers come only after a formal inspection. That inspection works best when the vehicle and parts are still intact.

Other Parties Who May Be Named Besides the Vehicle Maker

A claim may name the maker of a specific part, such as a brake component or tire maker, along with the vehicle maker.

Distributors and sellers can also be named. Their role depends on what they sold, how they stored it, and what they knew. Repair and maintenance shops can be part of the picture too, if their work was involved in the failure.

A recall notice that was issued but never carried out can be part of the factual picture. Whether it matters is decided case by case.

When more than one party is at fault, the rules differ by type of damage. Under Civil Code § 1431.2, in a wrongful death action based on principles of comparative fault, each defendant’s liability for non-economic damages is several only, not joint. Each defendant pays only its own share of fault for those damages.

If another driver contributed to the crash, that driver may also be part of the claim.

Evidence a Family Should Ask to Have Preserved

The most important evidence is the vehicle and the failed parts. Ask that nothing be repaired, sold, or scrapped while the cause is studied.

Ask the tow yard, insurer, and any other holder of the vehicle to keep it in writing. If a part came off in the crash, keep it sealed and out of a repair shop. Keep the packaging, labels, and receipts for any replacement parts.

Gather the paperwork too. That includes maintenance and repair receipts, purchase papers, the owner’s manual, and any service notices or recall letters.

Crash records matter. Police reports, photos, and witness names and phone numbers can all help.

A written preservation request puts the evidence issue on record. Acting early matters, because a part can be lost or changed during ordinary repair or storage.

How Fault and Damages Work in a California Wrongful Death Claim

Damages are reduced in proportion to that person’s share of fault. A person found 70% at fault would still recover 30% of damages.

Damages come in two groups. Economic damages are objectively verifiable monetary losses, such as medical expenses, loss of earnings, burial costs, and costs to repair or replace property. Non-economic damages are subjective losses, such as loss of society and companionship and emotional distress. See Civil Code § 1431.2.

The general measure for a non-contract wrong is set out in Civil Code § 3333. It covers the full detriment the wrong proximately caused.

Punitive damages are a separate, higher standard. Civil Code § 3294 allows them, in an action for the breach of an obligation not arising from contract, only when the plaintiff proves oppression, fraud, or malice by clear and convincing evidence. Malice includes conduct intended to cause injury, or despicable conduct done with willful and conscious disregard of others’ safety.

No dollar figure can be predicted from general information. A claim’s value depends on its evidence and the law applied to it.

Deadlines, Insurance Offers, and What to Understand Early

California generally gives two years to file a wrongful death claim (Code Civ. Proc. § 335.1). Learn your family’s deadline early.

Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1 sets a two-year limit for an action for the death of an individual caused by another’s wrongful act or neglect. Missing that limit can end the right to sue. Ask a lawyer when the clock started in your family’s case.

After a fatal crash, an insurer may reach out early with an offer. Insurance Code § 790.03 lists misleading a claimant about the applicable statute of limitations as an unfair claim practice when knowingly committed with such frequency as to indicate a general business practice. It also lists not attempting in good faith to effectuate prompt, fair, and equitable settlements of claims in which liability has become reasonably clear.

Before you respond to any offer, learn what a release signs away. Take your time with that decision.

Talk With Colvin Accident Lawyers About Your Family’s Situation

If a brake or tire failure may have caused your loved one’s death, you can talk with Colvin Accident Lawyers about what your family is facing.

You may be planning a funeral, returning calls to insurers, and wondering whether the car in the tow yard still matters. You may not know yet whether the failure came from a defect or from something else. That uncertainty is normal.

Colvin Accident Lawyers is based in Bakersfield, California. The team can talk through your family’s facts with you. You can reach out through the contact page. The first consultation is free, confidential, and comes with no obligation to continue.

For the broader picture, read our wrongful death lawyer overview.

Common Questions

Donald Norman Colvin, Colvin Accident Lawyers, Bakersfield, California — responsible for this site.