HURT BY A DEFECTIVE AUTO PART IN SHREVEPORT?

Common Defective Auto Parts That Cause Injuries

Defective auto parts cause thousands of injuries across the United States each year. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) tracks recalls and safety complaints for every vehicle and component sold in the country. Several categories of auto parts account for the most serious injuries.

Airbags can fail to deploy during a collision, deploy at the wrong time, or rupture and send metal fragments into the vehicle cabin. The Takata airbag recall, which affected tens of millions of vehicles worldwide, involved inflators that could explode with excessive force. Vehicles with recalled Takata airbags remained on Louisiana roads for years after the initial recall notices.

Tire failures include tread separation, blowouts caused by manufacturing defects, and sidewall failures. A tire that separates at highway speed on Interstate 20 or Interstate 49 near Shreveport can cause a driver to lose control entirely. Defective brakes may include faulty brake lines, contaminated brake fluid, or brake pads that wear prematurely due to substandard materials.

Seatbelts that unlatch on impact, fuel systems that leak and ignite during a collision, steering components that lock or fail, and ignition switches that shut off the engine while driving are all documented categories of defective auto parts. Each of these failures can turn a survivable accident into a fatal one. This concept is known in product liability law as the "crashworthiness doctrine" or "enhanced injury theory." The defective part does not cause the initial collision but makes the outcome far worse than it should have been.

The Louisiana Products Liability Act and Auto Parts Claims

Louisiana governs product liability claims through the Louisiana Products Liability Act (LPLA), found at La. R.S. 9:2800.51 through 9:2800.59. The LPLA is the exclusive remedy for injuries caused by defective products in Louisiana. This means a person injured by a defective auto part must bring the claim under this statute rather than under general negligence or strict liability theories.

Under La. R.S. 9:2800.54, a manufacturer is liable for damage caused by its product when the product is unreasonably dangerous in one of four ways: construction or composition, design, inadequate warning, or failure to conform to an express warranty. The injured person must prove that the product was unreasonably dangerous, that the damage resulted from the dangerous condition, and that the dangerous condition existed at the time the product left the manufacturer’s control.

The LPLA applies to any entity that manufactures, assembles, or produces a product. For auto parts, this includes the company that made the individual component and, in many cases, the vehicle manufacturer that incorporated the part into the finished vehicle. Louisiana law does not require proof of negligence. The focus is on the condition of the product itself.

Proving an Auto Part Was Unreasonably Dangerous

The LPLA defines three main categories of product defect, each with its own standard of proof.

A construction or composition defect under La. R.S. 9:2800.55 exists when the product deviates in a material way from the manufacturer’s specifications or from otherwise identical products. A brake caliper made with a metal alloy that does not match the engineering blueprint is an example. The injured person must show the product differed from the intended design and that this deviation caused the failure.

A design defect under La. R.S. 9:2800.56 exists when a product is unreasonably dangerous because of its design. The injured person must show that a reasonable alternative design existed at the time the product left the manufacturer’s control. The alternative design must have been capable of preventing the injury, and the likelihood and severity of harm from the original design must have outweighed the burden of adopting the alternative. Courts evaluate the utility of the product, the nature of the danger, and the feasibility of a safer design.

An inadequate warning defect under La. R.S. 9:2800.57 applies when a product is unreasonably dangerous because it lacks adequate warnings or instructions for safe use. Auto parts manufacturers must warn about hazards that are not obvious to ordinary users. A fuel system component that requires specific installation torque specifications, for example, must include clear instructions. Failure to provide them can support an inadequate warning claim.

Who Is Liable in a Defective Auto Parts Case

The LPLA imposes liability on manufacturers. Under La. R.S. 9:2800.53, a "manufacturer" includes any person or entity in the business of manufacturing a product for placement into trade or commerce. This covers the company that made the specific part, the company that assembled the part into a larger component, and the vehicle manufacturer that installed the component in the finished vehicle.

A non-manufacturer seller (such as a dealership or auto parts retailer) is generally not liable under the LPLA unless the seller exercised control over the design or manufacturing process, made an express warranty, or altered the product after receiving it. However, if the manufacturer is insolvent, cannot be served with process, or is not subject to Louisiana jurisdiction, the seller may be held liable under La. R.S. 9:2800.52.

In practice, defective auto parts claims often involve multiple defendants. A person injured by a defective airbag might file suit against the airbag manufacturer, the vehicle manufacturer, and the supplier of the inflator component. Each entity in the manufacturing chain may bear responsibility depending on where the defect originated.

Recalls, Filing Deadlines, and Comparative Fault

A recall issued by NHTSA or by the manufacturer does not automatically establish liability in a Louisiana products liability case. However, a recall is strong evidence that the manufacturer recognized a safety problem with the product. Recall notices, technical service bulletins, and NHTSA complaint records can all support a claim that the manufacturer knew or should have known about the defect.

The fact that a vehicle owner did not respond to a recall notice does not bar a claim. Louisiana courts examine whether the owner received actual notice and whether the recall remedy was reasonably available. Manufacturers have a continuing duty to address known safety hazards.

Louisiana’s prescriptive period for personal injury claims is two years from the date of the injury for accidents occurring on or after July 1, 2024. This deadline is set by La. C.C. art. 3492 as amended. Filing after the prescriptive period expires will result in dismissal of the claim. In cases involving defective auto parts, the injury date is typically the date of the accident or the date the defect caused harm.

Louisiana applies comparative fault under La. C.C. art. 2323. For accidents occurring on or after January 1, 2026, a person who is 51 percent or more at fault cannot recover damages. For earlier accidents, a person’s recovery is reduced by their percentage of fault but is not barred entirely. In a defective auto parts case, the manufacturer may argue that the vehicle owner failed to maintain the vehicle properly, ignored recall notices, or modified the part. These arguments go to comparative fault and can reduce the amount of damages awarded.

Anyone injured by a suspected defective auto part should preserve the part and the vehicle. Physical evidence is critical in these cases. An inspection by a qualified engineer or accident reconstruction expert can determine whether the part failed due to a defect or due to normal wear, improper maintenance, or some other cause. The NHTSA recall database at nhtsa.gov is a public resource for checking whether a vehicle or component has been subject to a safety recall.