A Geneva County woman is suing after her 13-year-old son died when the utility vehicle (UTV) he was driving overturned. Brittany Howerton filed a lawsuit in Coffee County Circuit Court against Polaris, the manufacturer of the UTV, and Barney McCrummen, the UTV's owner, who let her son drive.
The lawsuit alleges that McCrummen's 2017 Polaris Ranger was "in a defective condition" because of its "defective design and was not reasonable (sic) safe for its intended uses and that reasonable and/or safer alternative designs existed that would have prevented the injuries and/or damages."
It is further alleged that "Polaris knew or should have known that the parts, subparts, components, and/or equipment of the subject UTV were defective and/or could fail, causing the vehicle to overturn."
The lawsuit accuses McCrummen of being "negligent in his entrustment of and failure to supervise the use of the Polaris Ranger," adding that he "breached a duty of care when he allowed [the plaintiff's son] to operate the Polaris Ranger."
In 2019, plaintiffs in California filed a class action lawsuit against Polaris, alleging that their UTVs do not meet OSHA standards for safety, despite claiming otherwise. They further argued that Polaris' rollover protection system was tested using improper standards, making it appear that the UTVs complied with or exceeded regulations when they did not in reality.
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