Harley-Davidson seems to be having a tough time lately. Problems are frequently knocking on its door with various deficiencies around its range of models, to which the brand responds, as expected, with the relevant campaigns to be able to solve them. However, we assume that the latest of these problems will have fallen like a bucket of cold water on the heart of the Milwaukee brand.
Harley-Davidson forced to pay multimillion-dollar compensation
Nothing more and nothing less than $287 million257 million euros, is what the American firm is obliged to pay, for the moment, to the families of two of its clients who suffered an accident while driving one of its models in 2020. With different luck for both, since the passenger died in said accident.
According to the colleagues at Ride Apart, Harold Morris and Pamela Sinclair They were riding between New York and Pennsylvania on a Harley-Davidson Trike when it went off the road and crashed on the edge of the road. Morris was injured, but Pamela was not so lucky, dying in that fateful accident. The cause? Apparently a failure in the traction control system.
Four years after the incident, Harold Morris and the Sinclair heirs must collect millions in compensation from Harley-Davidson. This was decided by a jury that ruled in favor of the victims, and therefore did not accept the arguments of the brand.
Morris commented after hearing the verdict: “The money is great, don’t get me wrong, but the main reason for the lawsuit was because we wanted to hold Harley-Davidson accountable. I wouldn’t want any other Harley owner to go through what I went through over the last four years.”
According to the defense attorneys, the faulty system on Harley-Davidson tricycles was not properly tested before being used on the production vehicle. At this point, it is not clear how many examples of the model are currently in circulation, and how many of them could suffer a similar failure, which could in the worst case result in an accident like the one ridden by Harold Morris.
Mark KircherHarley-Davidson’s defense attorney in the case, commented: “All I am authorized to say is that Harley-Davidson respectfully disagrees with the verdict and plans to appeal.”.
We don’t know how the matter will end, but what is clear is that Harley is not going through its best moment, with several open fronts at present that, in addition to costing them money, are irreparably damaging the reputation of the legendary American brand.
