Bexar County Jury Awards $124.5M in Defective Car Seat Case
A child sustained a severe brain injury when a driver crashed into the back of his father's car. The impact caused the driver's seat to collapse, leading to the child's head hitting his father's head. The child suffered a fractured skull, partial paralysis, and blindness, requiring lifelong assisted living and medical care.
Case Information Updated: October 2025
Case Outcome
- Outcome
- Settlement
- Amount
- $124,000,000
- County
- Bexar County, TX
- Resolved
- 2016
Injury & Accident Details
- Injury Type
- Catastrophic Injury
- Accident Type
- Rear-end
- Case Type
- Design defects, negligence, failure to warn, malice, gross neglect
Case Overview
In December 2012, a vehicle driven by the child’s father was stopped in Bexar County, Texas, behind a school bus when another driver crashed into it from behind. The impact caused the driver's seat to collapse rearward, striking the head of the seven-year-old child seated in the back. The child suffered a traumatic brain injury, including a depressed skull fracture, partial paralysis, and blindness, requiring lifelong assisted living and extensive medical care.
The plaintiffs, the child and his family, filed a lawsuit in Bexar County District Court against the driver who caused the rear-end collision, and against the car manufacturers, Audi AG and Volkswagen Group of America Inc. The suit alleged design defects and negligence against the car manufacturers, claiming the driver’s seat was defective and they knew about the defect but failed to warn consumers. The plaintiffs also claimed malice and gross neglect against the car manufacturers and negligence against the defendant driver.
The car manufacturers denied responsibility, arguing the child’s father was contributorily negligent for not securing the child in a child safety seat and for failing to mitigate damages. They also contended the plaintiffs failed to identify an adequate alternative seat design. The defendant driver argued that the car manufacturers were primarily at fault due to the alleged design defect and sought to have any liability reduced by their percentage of responsibility.
A jury on March 2, 2016, awarded the family $124.5 million. The jury found that design defects in the vehicle's driver's seat caused it to collapse and that the car manufacturers were negligent in failing to warn about the defect, attributing 55 percent of the liability to them. The defendant driver was found 25 percent responsible, and the child's father was found 20 percent responsible for not securing the child in a car seat. Under Texas law, a party found more than 50 percent responsible is liable for the entire amount of damages. No punitive damages were awarded.
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