2023 Hyundai Tucson

My client lost her right eye and suffered a brain injury when an aftermarket rhinestone emblem decal from her steering wheel shot into her face during a low-impact crash with a deer. The crash left minimal damage to the front end of the vehicle, but caused the airbags to deploy, shooting the decal into my client’s head. She purchased this dangerous decoration on Amazon, and despite NHTSA notices in 2023 and 2024 telling consumers to “avoid purchasing these steering wheel decals for all vehicle makes and models” and to “remove any such decals that they have already applied to their steering wheels,” this warning was not passed on to my client, even though records are kept of individual customer purchases, and these warnings could have been easily shared. A recent check of Amazon’s Safety Recalls and Alerts webpage did not turn up the 2024 NHTSA notice. I am sure there are other Amazon customers out there, who, like my client, have no idea just how dangerous these things are.

As I was pulling into a parking space in a parking garage, the vehicle's engine revved, tires squealed and then the vehicle propelled forward on its own, without my foot being on the accelerator. The vehicle only stopped when it hit a support column and the wall of the parking structure. There was extensive damage to my vehicle and to the parking structure wall. My safety and the safety of others was put at risk due to the car accelerating on its own. The problem has not been confirmed or reproduced by the dealer, but we did take the vehicle to the dealer for inspection and they said they could not find anything wrong with the vehicle that would have caused the unintended acceleration. The vehicle has been inspected by the manufacturer, the insurance company and an investigator for Hyundai. Hyundai infomed us that they are not taking any responsibility for anything that occurred and that they will not share their investigator's report with us. There were no warming lamps or messages related to the problem prior to the failure. However, there have been other occasions while driving on the open road when the engine has revved on its own and I told Hyundai about that. In doing our own research, we have found that there are other 2023 Hyundai Tucson drivers who have had this exact same problem (unintended acceleration causing a crash) while pulling into parking spaces. Additionally, the air bags did not deploy during the collision and therefore the incident was not recorded by the EDR.

I was driving straight when a vehicle coming from the opposite direction made a left turn without yielding, crossing into my lane. As a result, my vehicle collided with the other car at full speed. However, the airbag in my steering wheel did not deploy upon impact, as it should have. My injuries have been significantly more severe than they would have been had the airbag functioned properly. I reported this issue to the vehicle manufacturer, and they opened a case and conducted an inspection. During their inspection, they found that the airbag had since deployed. However, my vehicle was transported off a steep hill and moved to multiple lots before the inspection, any of which could have triggered a delayed deployment. Despite this, the manufacturer has refused to accept liability. Because the airbag failed to deploy at the time of impact, there was no buffer between me and the steering wheel. This resulted in excessive force against my chest from the seatbelt and direct impact with the steering wheel, leading to more severe injuries. There were no warning lights on in the vehicle before the crash, nor were there any recalls related to this issue at the time of the incident.

When the vehicle was started the SRS light remained illuminated and when driving the vehicle over 40 MPH the abs, traction control, collision avoidance, and start-stop lights on the instrument cluster come on and remained on. The adaptive cruise control, nor the button for the start-stop deactivation work. The vehicle has just over 500 miles on the vehicle and is less than a week old.