KANSAS CITY, Kan. – A Kansas family is suing General Motors and a French auto parts company over the death of their 17-month-old daughter in 2015.
Heather Tracy and Ryan Poole filed the lawsuit in Kansas City federal court Friday.
Court documents say Tracy was driving a Saturn Aura on 175th St. in Overland Park on the afternoon of Nov. 7, 2015, when another vehicle slammed into the back of their car.
The lawsuit alleges that due to a design flaw the front seats of the vehicle collapsed onto two children sitting in the back seat.
Both children were taken to area hospitals in critical condition. A 9-year-old boy suffered a traumatic brain injury and was left blind in one eye. Seventeen-month-old Addilynn Poole died from her injuries hours after the crash.
A Shawnee man was charged in 2015 in the fatal wreck.
The lawsuit says GM and Faurecia, the company that designed the seats, should have known the seats were not strong enough to stand up to a rear-impact collision. It said GM should have alerted consumers, parents of young children in particular, of the possibility of the seats collapsing in a crash.
41 Action News reached out to General Motors for comment, but a spokesperson said the company has none at this time.
