Date:         Sat, 28 Apr 2001 13:21:02 -0700
Reply-To:     steve@syncro.org
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Steve Schwenk <steve@syncro.org>
Subject:      Re: Vanagon Lawsuit
Comments: To: Ari Ollikainen <Ari@OLTECO.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Ari Ollikainen wrote:
>         I feel for the parents loss but putting the blame on VW for not
>         equipping the vehicle they bought with more than the governmentv mandated restraints is a bit of a stretch.


Actually, it is not.  The gov. does not have the
resources nor is it government's role to ensure the
safety of every vehicle.  The manufacturer is in the
best position to do this with each individual model.
It would requoire a huge gov. bueracracy and medling to
hold the gov responsible for ensuring the safety of
each and every vehicle through regulations.  Products
liability law is more efficient manner of ensuring
safety.  The manufacturer is held liable for forseeable
safety problems, things that they know or should know
will cause injuries.  And history has shown that very
often they have known, with great precision, that
injuries to X number of people or X number of deaths
will occur, but it will cost $Y to fix, so let the
people get hurt/killed instead of hurting profits.  Sad
but true.  Of course, there are abuses on both sides.