my father owns a 04 lexus rx 330, tonight on his way home from work, his car suddenly died in the middle of the highway. since it was so sudden, he had absolutely no opportunity to pull over to the side. my father (and mother) were inside looking for the road side assistant to call and also dialed 911. my mother realized it wasnt safe to stay inside the vehicle because they oncoming cars were driving so fast, they decided to step out of it and walked away. as they were walking away, a car struck their car, and in the end it turned out to be a 5-7(?) car pile up. luckily no one including my parents were seriously hurt.

so is it lexus fault for making faulty transmission? the car had maintanance approximately 2 weeks ago. a semi-brand new car shouldnt supposed to die in the middle of the highway. my parents could of died, and other people. are we at risk for getting sued? please help. thanks.

the potential for you to be sued is good, but then you can turn around and sue lexus. Depending on what caused it to die will be the variable for what can be done.

how do you not get a car off the highway when it dies though? cars just dont lock up the bakes and stop, they usually coast...

No matter what, your parent's insurance is going to be crapped on... if they want to try, they can sue Lexus I suppose... but it will be mighty hard to fight over.

Why didn't they put on their emergency blinkers?

they did had it on, the driver just didn't realize it.

i'm still confused why they didn't get off the road..

the fight with lexus won't be hard if they a. have a good lawyer and b. can prove from diferent places that it was ultimatly the cars fault.

the car died so sudden. they said they were in the middle lane. when they tried to get it into the emergency lane, they simply can't switch lane as fast since they were losing momentum and the oncoming cars were driving way too fast.

should be an interesting battle....best-o-luck to them

o god court battle..

you live in jersey...sombody is bound to sue someone for something related..

An automatic right? Did they hit the hazards/brake check/do a little weave to let others know they were coming over and in trouble? Or did they sit there until the car came to full-stop?Sue-happy people get their panties in a wad when an opportunity to make a buck comes around because of misfortune and plain ol' bad luck. Insurance/Lexus will likely cover it. The CPU code will be pulled to see what happened. Luckily no one died.

well they did get to the right lane in the end, but they couldn't inch it anymore to the emergency lane. they were somewhat close to it though, but not quite. kinda like football. yeah, people in jersey tend to sue every chance they can get. i don't know they'll find out tomorrow.

Better hope they don't have Palisades Insurance...THEY SUCK A$$. All those other people are screwed if they have to deal with Palisades for a claim.

...people in jersey tend to sue every chance they can get. No, people all over America tend to sue every chance they get. It's our culture, and it sucks ass. I don't think your parents were at fault at all from what you describe. Every driver is responsible for avoiding objects in front of them, including stalled vehicles, debris in the road, and other hazards. If they are going too fast to avoid a collision, or not paying attention, it is their own fault.

Did they have their hazard lights on? I think that would be a big help for them if they did...if not then that's a huge mistake.

If they are going too fast to avoid a collision, or not paying attention, it is their own fault.Unless they work for a city and are driving a city vehicle, of course. :rolleyes:
Not a cent yet from Pasadena. Ten months and counting.

my father owns a 04 lexus rx 330, tonight on his way home from work, his car suddenly died in the middle of the highway. since it was so sudden, he had absolutely no opportunity to pull over to the side. my father (and mother) were inside looking for the road side assistant to call and also dialed 911. my mother realized it wasnt safe to stay inside the vehicle because they oncoming cars were driving so fast, they decided to step out of it and walked away. as they were walking away, a car struck their car, and in the end it turned out to be a 5-7(?) car pile up. luckily no one including my parents were seriously hurt.

so is it lexus fault for making faulty transmission? the car had maintanance approximately 2 weeks ago. a semi-brand new car shouldnt supposed to die in the middle of the highway. my parents could of died, and other people. are we at risk for getting sued? please help. thanks.
The 1st thing I would do is contact Lexus to check a recall notice. I don't know in your state but here it would be everyone's fault who rearended your parent. Unless it's on a hil or around a blind corner those people are screwed. it's the 1st collison event which caused the crash. It's a secondary event for following to close on driver 3,4,5,6,7,etc. Your parents being driver one.

Cars break down. Why sue Lexus unless there is some obvious negligence, or a widespread defect that isn't being addressed? The fault lies with the people who struck their car for not paying attention, speeding, and/or insufficient following distance. It's up to every driver to maintain control of their vehicle and that includes maintaining assured safe distance ahead. Unless someone can prove that they should have been able to get off the roadway, I don't see any liability on your parents' part.

Not to be a smartass or anything, but unless the tranny completely locked up, why didn't 2 adults put the car in neutral and push it into the breakdown lane?
That's what I would have done, barring injury or old age (or a frozen tranny)

Not to be a smartass or anything, but unless the tranny completely locked up, why didn't 2 adults put the car in neutral and push it into the breakdown lane?
That's what I would have done, barring injury or old age (or a frozen tranny)

From the sound of it, if they tried that, they could have been killed by the people driving too fast if they were out pushing it

Depends. If they had time to dig out the roadside assistance, they probably would have had time to push it off, unless they were on the other side of a blind hill and couldn't see oncoming traffic.
Like I said, not to be a smartass or anything.

Cars break down. Why sue Lexus unless there is some obvious negligence, or a widespread defect that isn't being addressed? The fault lies with the people who struck their car for not paying attention, speeding, and/or insufficient following distance. It's up to every driver to maintain control of their vehicle and that includes maintaining assured safe distance ahead. Unless someone can prove that they should have been able to get off the roadway, I don't see any liability on your parents' part.
Copycat :D

Not to be a smartass or anything, but unless the tranny completely locked up, why didn't 2 adults put the car in neutral and push it into the breakdown lane?
That's what I would have done, barring injury or old age (or a frozen tranny)

And you might be dead now.

In Arizona, if you rear end someone its YOUR fault. As he explained if the car suddenly died, and was losing speed it probably was nearly impossible to merge to the emergency lane. As a driver, it IS your responsibility to avoid any debris, i could have sworn this was covered in the drivers MANUAL that must be read before anyone gets their licence. Now as to whos fault it was for the car dying, thats still in the air. If the car died because it ran out of gas, good luck trying to get Lexus trying to pay for it. If they steering column failed and that caused an electrical short or some bizarre incident like that, then you have a pretty good claim.

thanks for the help guys. still no word on why the car died. they had like almost a full tank of gas, it leaked all over the road. if they pushed the car..i guess that would be the end. luckily no one is that stupid, especially pushing an SUV, when cars are coming at you 65+mph.