Local woman suing Yamaha after off-road vehicle tipped

OCALA — An Ocala woman, who was seriously injured when an off-road utility terrain vehicle she was riding last year tipped over, has taken her case to circuit court.

Rachel A. Jollimore, 38, is seeking damages and a jury trial against the corporation that manufactures the vehicle.

In July 2007, Jollimore, was riding on a Yamaha Rhino in a field in Silver Springs when the driver of the vehicle steered to avoid a tree. The Rhino tipped over on its right side, pinning Jollimore underneath. She suffered a broken hand and a skull fracture that still requires a brain stent inside her head.

“I have to watch what I do, I can’t pick anything up heavy. I can bend, but I have a limited ability. I can’t sleep on my stomach,” Jollimore said in a recent phone interview, ticking off a list of once-simple tasks she said she is no longer able to perform.

Jollimore is now suing Yamaha Motor Corporation, as well as its manufacturing arm, and the Ocala retailer where the vehicle was purchased, for product liability and negligence due to what she claims is a defective design and lack of key safety features.

Those defects, her lawyers say, include a high center of gravity, narrow track width, narrow wheels and tires, and side-by-side seating that makes the vehicle “especially prone to tipping and rolling over.”

In Marion County, where open fields and horse farms abound, the Rhino — described as a cross between an all-terrain vehicle and a Jeep — is especially marketable, with the ability to haul up to 400 pounds of cargo on its 1,100 pound frame.

At Martin’s Yamaha of Ocala, at least one Rhino is sold a week, according to an employee. The 450 model retails at $8,500 and the 700 model retails at $10,600.

More than 100,000 Yamaha Rhinos have been sold in the U.S. since it was introduced in 2003, according to lawyers representing Jollimore. The Houston law firm also is representing dozens of other individuals involved in Rhino-related accidents in states inlcuding Arizona, Texas, California and Nevada, where the individuals have suffered broken limbs, some requiring amputation, said lawyer Robert Ammons.

The vehicle has set off roughly 200 state and federal lawsuits in the country and has been accused of causing dozens of fatalities, according to a Nov. 4 Wall Street Journal article.

Yamaha issued safety warnings concerning the Rhino, which despite coming equipped with seat belts is not subject to regulatory standards, in September 2006 and August 2007, even offering free doors and handholds to owners. Aside from a March 2008 recall of 7,800 model year 2008 Rhinos as the result of a possible faulty left-wheel brake caliper, the company has not issued a product-wide recall of the popular vehicle.

That decision, Ammons said, indicates “corporate acknowledgement” of Rhino’s safety issues, but underlying “profit motivation.”

“They continue to sell this vehicle with the same design,” he said. “The evidence is so strong, the massive number of these vehicles that are rolling over and injuring people.”

Yamaha representatives claim the lawsuits are nothing more than the efforts of “entrepreneurial plaintiff lawyers” looking to make a quick buck.

Roy Watson, general manager of legal administration for Yamaha Motor Corporation, U.S.A., said there is nothing unsafe about the design of the Rhino and that consumers must use the product “responsibly” by wearing helmets and seat belts.

“We stand behind the Rhino. It’s a very good product when used appropriately,” he said. “You have to use common sense and good judgment anytime you use a motorized product.”

Still, Ammons believes local retailers have a responsibility to alert potential buyers to the safety risks of the vehicle.

“If you’re going to profit from the sale of a customer, and you know that it has a dangerous propensity, you can’t sit there with your mouth shut. Let’s face it, children are riding as passengers in these vehicles,” he said.

Jollimore, who is unemployed and has incurred more than $100,000 in medical bills, is seeking damages on behalf of herself in addition to her husband and four children, who range in age from 12 to 21.

“I don’t wanna see nobody else get hurt like I got hurt. It’s not called for,” she said.