Last Updated on January 10, 2023 by CCAR Staff
SAN BERNARDINO >> The families of two men killed in a fiery crash in Ontario last year are suing Fiat Chrysler for wrongful death alleging the gas tank in their Jeep was defective.
Family members of Rosalio Munoz-Reyes, 26, and Juventino Diaz-Hernandez, 49, both of Los Angeles, filed the lawsuit Wednesday in San Bernardino Superior Court alleging the men’s deaths are two among dozens of fatal crashes associated with Jeeps, according to court documents and a statement from the families’ attorney.
“This crash was survivable, and these men would still be alive today if it wasn’t for the fuel-fed fire caused by damage to a defective gas tank,” said the plaintiffs’ attorney Christine D. Spagnoli, partner with the Santa Monica law firm Greene Broillet & Wheeler, LLP, in a written statement.
According to the Center for Auto Safety, since June 2013 there have been 47 deaths in fatal fire crashes in Jeeps investigated by the National Highway Safety Traffic Administration, which led to partial recalls of some models, the statement said.
On Jan. 22, 2015, Munoz-Reyes and Diaz-Hernandez were returning home from Riverside where they worked as street vendors, according to police and media reports.
The 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee they were riding in broke down on the 60 Freeway in Ontario. As they waited for help, another car rear-ended the Jeep and it burst into flames, according to the statement. Both men were killed.
“FCA US wishes to extend its deepest sympathies to the families of those affected by this horrific crash caused by a distracted drive, who slammed into the Jeep at a high rate of speed, and not by any defect in the 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee, which meets or exceeds all applicable federal safety standards, including those governing fuel tank integrity,” according to a statement issued by the Fiat Chrysler company.
