In June 2013, after initially refusing a NHTSA recall request, Chrysler did recall 1.56 million of those Jeeps and sent letters to another 710,000 owners of later, 1999–2004 Grand Cherokees as a “customer service campaign,” advising them to bring in their vehicles to have tow hitches installed. Chrysler contends that these are high-speed, high-energy collisions, that the Jeeps are no less safe than their contemporaries, and that they met all safety standards of the time. Safety advocates like Jenelle Embrey-who claimed to witness a mother and teen burn to death in a Grand Cherokee and later sent an online petition with 128,000 signatures to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in 2013-say there are hundreds more.Įmbrey’s petition led to a NHTSA investigation that found higher-than-average fatality rates among 1993–1998 Grand Cherokee and 2002–2007 Liberty models. There are more than 70 fire-related deaths from rear-end collisions in older Grand Cherokees and Libertys, according to the Detroit News. He may have been alive for an entire minute while engulfed in flames.Īs heart-wrenching as this account is, the Waldens aren’t alone. According to Automotive News, the boy suffered only a broken leg from the impact but “died screaming in a fire so intense his chest fused to the Jeep’s door” as he tried to escape his booster seat. This month, a family whose four-year-old son burned to death in the back of a 1999 Grand Cherokee is starting trial against the automaker-and unlike most large companies facing wrongful-death claims, Chrysler is refusing to settle.īryan and Lindsay Walden of Bainbridge, Georgia, brought the suit against Chrysler in July 2012, four months after their son, Remington, was killed when a 1997 Dodge Dakota rear-ended the ’99 Grand Cherokee in which he was riding. Older Jeeps with fuel tanks located behind the rear axle might lead to explosive testimony in a case against Chrysler starting trial in Georgia. A 2006 fatal crash involving a 1993 Jeep Grand Cherokee and another four-year-old child burned to death, Cassidy Jarmon, is pictured in Cleburne, Texas.
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