The 2017 Mercedes-Benz GLS’s dealership and manufacturer are being sued by the parents of a 7-year-old child named Eugene, who was third-degree burned after riding on a heated car seat. The lawsuit claims that the car’s construction was flawed.
The dealership argues that the parents are to blame for failing to protect their son and disputes that the heated seat was the cause of the burns.
Alleged burns from Mercedes-Benz’s car seat warmers are the subject of the most recent lawsuit against the company.
A class action lawsuit alleging that copper wiring in the seat warmers of various Mercedes car models may cause them to overheat and eventually burn a hole through the seat cover was settled in 2017 by Mercedes-Benz for $54 million in federal court in California. In that instance, Mercedes consented to fix the wiring in around 270,000 cars with seat heaters.
At least 13 years ago, American auto safety specialists started alerting medical journals to potential issues with heated seats in different automobile types.
According to a 2011 report in the National Library of Medicine, heated vehicle seats—a typical feature in contemporary cars—were becoming more widely acknowledged as possible risks.
According to the findings, people with decreased feeling are much more vulnerable to damage and could sustain a catastrophic injury.
In the instance of Eugene, the youngster was born with birth defects and neurological conditions, such as spina bifida, which prevents him from sensing sensations in his legs and buttocks. According to the lawsuit, he failed to notify his parents that the seat was scorching his flesh and tissue at the time of the injury.
The parents claim that the burn happened on September 18, 2023.
Around 8 p.m., Rena and Matthew Kelly were waiting for their next UberEats delivery call in their parked 2017 Mercedes-Benz GLS on Alder Street in downtown Eugene. According to the suit, their kid was in the back passenger seat, had unbuckled, stood up to stretch, then sat down again and turned on the seat heater.
They pulled off to make their next delivery about five minutes later, and his mother switched off the heat for her son’s seat.
About two hours later, when they got home, the boy’s mother saw that the back of his shorts had a burn mark on it. She also discovered that the suit indicated that the boy’s skin was severely burned and bubbling up.
According to the claim, the youngster had severe migraines, nausea, and stomachaches in response to his inability to detect pain like other people do.
Two days later, his parents brought their son to McKenzie Willamette Medical Center. For his injuries, he was treated there and then at Legacy Emanuel’s Chronic Wound and Outpatient Burn facility. According to the lawsuit, on October 13, 2013, he needed a surgical skin graft to treat the third-degree burn.
The parents of the boys were also warned by McKenzie Willamette doctors that they needed to notify the Oregon Department of Human Services because of the burn’s placement. The couple’s home was visited by a state child welfare officer who conducted a walkthrough and spoke with both parents.
The parents checked the temperature of the child’s seat when they brought the state employee to their vehicle.
According to the suit, the seat heated up to 147 degrees Fahrenheit in just 60 seconds after the seat warmer was turned on.
On July 24, 2022, the pair purchased the used vehicle from a dealership in Swickard, Eugene. The parents had never turned on the left rear passenger heating system, where their son was sitting, before the burn occurrence.
The lawsuit claims that the car’s seat heating system was excessively risky and that the dealership and manufacturer did not adequately inform the couple of the system’s potential hazards or warn them of it, especially considering their son’s neurological impairments.
According to their attorney John W. Knottnerus, Mercedes-Benz and the dealership both deny that the burns were brought on by the car’s heating system or that the vehicle was flawed in any manner.
Rather, the manufacturer and dealership cited the start of an investigation by the Oregon Department of Human Services into the Kellys’ son’s care. In addition, they argue that the boy’s parents failed to provide adequate treatment for him, stating in a response to the lawsuit that they didn’t take him to the hospital until two days after the burns were found.
Timothy I. Crawley, the lawyer for the Eugene couple and their son, described Mercedes-Benz’s response as “very strange” and said that the state never took any disciplinary action against the parents as a result of the burn.
According to Crawley, the manufacturer and auto dealership last week shifted the case, which was initially filed in Lane County Circuit Court, to federal court. However, the one federal claim—a consumer warranty claim—is anticipated to be removed from the lawsuit, which means the case will probably return to state court.
— Maxine Bernstein writes about criminal justice and federal courts. You may contact her at [email protected], 503-221-8212, or follow her on LinkedIn or X@maxoregonian.
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