OXNARD : 18-Year-Old Hurt in Accident Sues Subaru

An 18-year-old Oxnard man who lost part of his arm and suffers paralysis in his legs has filed a lawsuit against Subaru of America, contending that the company is responsible for the injuries he sustained in a 1992 car accident.

Israel Echevarria was severely injured Aug. 7 when he was thrown from the bed of a Subaru Brat as it left the roadway along Teal Club Road in Oxnard, the Ventura County Superior Court suit contends.

The lawsuit, which was filed on Tuesday, claims that the company should never have installed seats facing backward in the vehicle beds and did so only to avoid millions of dollars in U. S. tariffs.

With the rear seats, the Subaru Brat qualifies as “an other motor vehicle,” meaning that it would be subject to 3% import tariffs instead of the 25% assessed pickup trucks, the suit alleges.

Subaru was able to save more than $100 million, or $1,000 for every Brat it imported into the United States, the suit claims.

“Subaru has marketed the exact same vehicle in every other country as a pickup truck without the presence of rear-facing seats,” said Encino attorney Edward Steinbrecher, who is representing Echevarria.

A Subaru official at the company’s Western regional offices in Portland, Ore., referred questions to the firm’s corporate offices in New Jersey, where no one was available to comment on the lawsuit.

The suit also names the Ventura County and Oxnard as co-defendants in the case, alleging that the governments failed to properly maintain the road.

Echevarria contends in the suit that he has already spent more than $1 million on medical expenses.