The owner of the vehicle is now suing the automaker…
Considered a luxury, soft-close doors on a Mercedes-Benz GL3 450 are being blamed or a thumb amputation back on October 8, 2021. The victim, Richard J. Kastigar, Jr. who is the chief deputy for the Pima County Sheriff’s Department, has filed a lawsuit for his career-ending injury.
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According to the lawsuit, the injury happened in Kastigar’s garage. After coming home, Kastigar had his back to the luxury SUV, and that’s when his right thumb was caught between the driver’s door and B-pillar as the soft-close feature kicked in, shutting the door. The top half of the man’s thumb was severed, according to a legal filing, but by the time Kastigar was able to get to an emergency room, the doctor said it was too late to reattach the missing portion of the thumb.
In the same legal filing, Kastigar as the plaintiff is suing Mercedes-Benz USA for $500,000 in lost wages. He claims to be unable not only to perform his job in law enforcement but other daily tasks.
Instead of the lawsuit alleging there was a malfunction in the soft-close door system, it states Mercedes-Benz failed to install any safeguards should someone’s fingers were to get caught. That’s surprising considering many auto-up windows have had anti-pinch sensors for some time to prevent the exact type of scenario. The lawsuit seeks to correct this alleged oversight.
This is hardly the first time an automaker has been sued for a lack of anti-pinch sensors for soft-close doors. Both BMW and Jaguar have faced similar lawsuits. However, in the BMW case the judge dismissed the lawsuit, saying humans have been slamming their fingers in doors long before soft-close technology was ever invented. We’ll see which way this case with Mercedes-Benz goes. In the meantime, it’s wise to exercise caution with your car doors, whether they’re soft-close or not.
Check out the lawsuit filing for yourself here.
