A four-wheel all-terrain vehicle manufactured by Yamaha has for many years been a mainstay of the company's recreational vehicle business. The Yamaha Rhino ATV was introduced in 2003 and became commercially successful from the outset.

That success is now attached to a dark cloud that is presently looming ever larger for Yamaha, as several hundred wrongful death lawsuits have been brought against the company alleging an inherent stability in the Rhino's manufacture that renders it highly susceptible of rollover accidents, even on level terrain and while proceeding at slow speeds.

Federal wrongful death litigation has been consolidated in a multidistrict litigation pretrial proceeding in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. Additionally, Rhino ATV lawsuits are proliferating in state courts across the country. In California alone, there are 170 claims pending.

Close attention is currently being paid to a case in Ohio, where a wrongful death suit is proceeding on behalf of a young girl who died in a Rhino rollover at a church picnic in 2007. Court documents in that lawsuit maintain that 94 people have died in Rhino rollover accidents.

Yamaha denies liability in the case, stating that the girl was not wearing a helmet and that evidence is inconclusive concerning whether she was wearing a seatbelt at the time of the accident.

Yamaha has already been a defendant in five state court trials before juries. It has been successful in four of them, with its sole loss coming in Georgia, where a man was awarded more than $300,000 for leg injuries he sustained in a rollover.

Related Resource: www.aboutlawsuits.com "Yamaha Rhino ATV Wrongful Death Lawsuit Set for Trial" February 24, 2011