Lane Keeping Systems and Automotive Products Liability Cases

Lane Keeping Systems are designed to keep a vehicle in its lane of travel. Certainly any crash where a vehicle or tractor trailer left its lane of travel and resulted in catastrophic injuries or death should be carefully screened. There may be a failure to equip with a lane keeping system automotive products liability case.

Lane Keeping Systems (LKS) consist of lane departure warning (LDW), lane keeping assist (LKA), and/or lane centering assist (LCA). These safety features are not only designed to help keep a vehicle in its proper lane of travel, but also prevent the vehicle from departing its lane and causing a collision.

Lane Keeping System cases involve the vehicle leaving its lane of travel, usually because of driver distraction. Scenarios include:

a vehicle crossing over the center line and striking an on-coming vehicle,
a vehicle leaving the roadway and striking a vehicle in the breakdown lane,
a vehicle departing the roadway.

Lane Keeping Systems are not new technology

Lane Keeping Systems have been available on vehicles in Japan since 2002, in Europe since 2010, and in the Unites States since 2013. Therefore, they are not new safety features. Many manufacturers offer these safety features as optional. However, it is Jaime Jackson Law’s position that Lane Keeping Systems should be standard on vehicles and tractor trailers. If a vehicle or tractor trailer is not equipped with a Lane Keeping System and that vehicle leaves its lane of travel causing a collision resulting in catastrophic injuries, there may be an automotive products liability case. Such a case would be against the manufacturer of that vehicle or truck for failing to equip the vehicle or truck with a Lane Keeping System.

Lane Departure Warning

Lane Departure Warning (LDW) safety systems are intended to warn the driver of an impending, unintended lane departure. In addition, they assist the driver in redirecting the vehicle to stay within the lane of travel. LDW Systems warn the driver of a lane departure with an audible alert, visual alert, or haptic feedback through vibration of the steering wheel, or all three. Further, LDW operates with a camera mounted on the windshield which monitors the painted road lines on either side of the vehicle. So, the camera determines if the vehicle has approached a lane marking, or departed the lane, and then provides a warning to the driver. In fact, LDW systems are designed to provide the warning with enough time such that drivers can maintain their lane without crossing over the centerline into the other lane of travel.

Lane Keeping Assistance

Lane Keeping Assistance (LKA) provides steering input to assist the vehicle in maintaining its lane of travel and from departing the lane. The system uses either the Electronic Power Steering (EPS) system or differential braking via the Electronic Stability Control (ESC) system to actively steer the vehicle to keep it within or return it to its original travel lane.

Lane Centering Assist

Lane centering assist (LCA) provides automatic steering to continually center the vehicle in its lane.

When is there a failure to equip case?

Any crash involving a vehicle or tractor trailer that has left its lane of travel and has resulted in a collision with catastrophic injuries or death should be screened for a potential failure to equip with a lane keeping system automotive products liability case. Contact Jaime Jackson Law if you would like to discuss a potential failure to equip case further.