Jeep Grand Cherokee Class Action Lawsuit Filed Over Deadly Rollaway Risks

Fiat Chrysler faces a new class action lawsuit over problems with Jeep Grand Cherokee vehicles, alleging that the auto maker hid information about a shifter design defect that may allow the vehicles to roll away, which has been linked to hundreds of accidents and the recent death of an up-and-coming movie actor. 

Last week, Anton Yelchin, who played Chekov in the new Star Trek movies, died after his Jeep Grand Cherokee rolled backwards over him in his driveway, crushing him against a pillar.

After the actor’s death and publicity surrounding the Jeep Grand Cherokee rollaway problems, a class action lawsuit was filed alleging that the shifter defect was responsible for the Yelchin’s death, as well as at least 300 other accidents.

The complaint (PDF) was filed by a group of three plaintiffs in the U.S. District Court fort he Central District of California on June 23, seeking class action status to pursue claims for all owners or lessees of of 2012-14 Dodge Chargers and Chrysler 300s, and 2014-15 Jeep Grand Cherokees that contain a defective ZF shifter.

In April, a Chrysler recall was announced for 1.1 million Jeep Grand Cherokee, Dodge Charger and Chrysler 300 vehicles due to confusion over the new shifter design, which reports suggest could cause drivers to believe their vehicle is in the “Park” position when it is actually in gear.

An investigation by the automaker and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) discovered at least 314 roll-away accidents and 41 injuries that may be related to a new design for the vehicle’s gear shifter. The design appears to confuse drivers, since the shifter returns to the same position after each gear selection.

Certain mid-size SUV’s and mid-size sedans sold in recent years have been equipped with automatic transmissions that have electric shift levers, which return to the center position after each gear selection is made. The vehicle’s gear position is then indicated by the illumination of the abbreviated gear selected on top of the shifter knob.

The shifters are not designed as the traditional “PRND” layouts, which many drivers are accustom to. It appears that this is causing drivers to make incorrect conclusions about the status of the vehicle.

“[Fiat Chrysler’s] unreasonable delay in fixing the defect and its warning letter was obviously too little, too late for Mr. Yelchin, and nearly a million Defective Shifter Vehicles remain in unsuspecting owners’ driveways and garages,” according to allegations raised in the class action that seeks to force the auto maker to promptly replace the defective shifter design or install a safety override system like is found in other vehicles. “As a result of this dangerous defect, the Defective Shifter Vehicles are ‘unsafe in any driveway’ and the value of each Defective Shifter Vehicle has diminished, and it will remain depressed even if an effective fix is eventually applied.”

Days after Yelchin’s death, Fiat Chrysler announced that they were accelerating the recall program for the vehicles. The fix involves the installation of new software with an “Auto Park” feature that the company says will prevent drivers from accidentally leaving the car in gear. However, it was initially anticipated that the software would not be available until July at the earliest, and potentially not available until August.

The recall impacts an estimated 811,586 model year 2012 through 2014 Dodge Charger, 2012 through 2014 Chrysler 300 sedans, and model year 2014 through 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee SUV’s sold in the U.S. . In addition, Chrysler will also be recalling an estimated 52,144 vehicles in Canada, 16,805 in Mexico, and 248,667 to countries outside of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), totaling roughly 1,129,202 vehicles.

The NHTSA also warned that the vehicles’ signal a chime and a cluster alert on the dash display when a door is opened while the vehicle is not in the “Park” position, however the agency stated this function does not protect drivers who intentionally leave the engine running or drivers who do not realize the engine is still running after an attempted shut-off, posing a rollaway hazard.

The NHTSA also noted several other concerns with the electronic shifters, including that there is no gate around the shifter, and that the entire range of motion the shifter is extremely short, being maybe two or three inches at most.

According to the NHTSA investigation, while testing the shifter the agency found the electronic gear shifter’s operation is “not intuitive, and offers “poor tactile and visual feedback to the driver, increasing the potential for unintended gear selection.”