Yamaha Waverunner explodes on launch ramp, killing owner. $21.3M. San Bernardino County.

Facts and Background

• Facts and Background:

  In 2016, the deceased, Juan Pineda Flores, a 47-year-old husband and father of three daughters, purchased two 2014 Yamaha Waverunners, one new and one slightly used. When the deceased took the Waverunners for their first outing, the new Waverunner did not start nor leave the trailer. The Waverunner had only 0.4 hours of use, which was believed to be from the dealership delivery/setup prior to the sale. The deceased brought the Waverunner back to the Authorized Yamaha dealership and informed them that the Waverunner did not start. The dealership was advised by YMUS to identify the problem and ultimately directed the dealership to disassemble the engine. Seventy-five percent of the entire unit had to be disassembled in order to diagnose the malfunction. The dealership found that the engine and impeller seized. Further, the dealership found the failure to be a missing spacer in the impeller. Rather than replacing the Waverunner, YMUS directed the dealership to repair the Waverunner under the warranty. A month later, the Waverunner was returned to the deceased.

  Five years later, on June 10, 2021, the deceased along with his wife and two of his three daughters traveled to Rivershore Estates at the Colorado River, which they had done multiple times a year for nearly 20 years. On June 11, 2021, the deceased and his brother prepared the deceased’s two Waverunners and the brother’s Waverunner for launching. The deceased and his brother launched the brother’s Waverunner, and then went to launch the deceased’s two Waverunners.  While on the launch ramp, the deceased climbed onto the subject Waverunner. When the deceased pressed the ignition button, the Waverunner exploded, throwing the deceased into the Colorado River. The deceased’s brother swam out and brought the deceased ashore. The deceased suffered devastating abdominal damage, said his last word to his brother and succumbed.

   

• Plaintiff's Contentions:

  The Waverunner had a fracture in the fuel filler neck just below the deck of the vessel. This defect was caused by faulty manufacturing. Specifically, when the fuel filler neck was installed, YMMC over-tightened the bolt that fastened the fuel filler neck to the vessel’s deck, causing extreme pressure on the fuel filler neck, which led to its fracture. Plaintiffs’ expert Weikuang Chao testified that the presence of “beach wave” and “striation” marks on the fractured surface were the result of “over torquing” during the installation the fuel filler neck. The fracture allowed gasoline vapors from the fuel line to leak through and into the hull of the vessel.

  Further, that the wiring became exposed from the rubbing of the unsecured wiring over the four years of traveling between plaintiffs’ home and the Colorado River several times a year, due to the vibration on the trailer, and from use on the river.  Further, that the amount of gasoline vapors was within the percentage “envelope” where an explosion would occur, and that the sparking event for the explosion came from the unsecured wiring of the positive lead from the starter motor and the bilge pump wiring.  Plaintiff contended that this wiring defect was the result of YMUS instructing the Authorized Yamaha dealership to repair instead of replacing the vessel.

  Plaintiff claimed that the decedent had in fact opened the seat to ventilate the engine compartment, then replaced the seat 15 minutes before the explosion.

  The parties had stipulated that the deceased had a BAC of between .055 to .06.  Plaintiffs, in their case-in-chief, brought in their forensic toxicologist  who testified that there was no evidence that the deceased’s BAC would have impaired him. Further, it was raised during expert testimony that Yamaha put forth the issue of BAC for the purpose of “victim shaming.”  

• Defendant's Contentions:

  That the WaveRunner’s fuel filler neck was not fractured during assembly in 2013, but rather, fractured due to the explosion in 2021 when the WaveRunner’s deck separated from the hull.  Further, that plaintiffs presented no testing to support their theory of how the fracture occurred.

  Yamaha presented evidence that it was impossible to fracture the filler neck from overtightening, as the type of torque wrench used in the factory to tighten the fuel filler neck nut limited the torque to the 6 Nm specification which could not cause a fracture. Yamaha also presented unrebutted testing showing that, even under the hypothetical scenario that a different tool without a torque limitation was used and the filler neck was tightened to failure, the filler neck would fracture in a different manner and location than the fracture to the subject filler neck. Yamaha also presented unrebutted testing showing that the fracture was consistent with a one-time dynamic overload event, like the explosion in this instance that happened over seven years after manufacture, rather than from overtightening or fatigue. Yamaha also presented evidence that there were no other claims of a fractured filler neck in over 623,000 other WaveRunners produced.

  Yamaha contended that the repairs made by the dealership in 2015 (five years prior to the explosion) were unrelated to the explosion, and plaintiffs’ experts conceded that the alleged missing spacer that was discovered by the dealership during the repair did not cause the explosion over five years later. Although plaintiffs contended that the dealership was negligent by failing to re-secure wiring following its repair, Yamaha presented evidence that the wires had not been left unsecured and, even if they had been, the wires each had two layers of plastic insulation that would prevent chafing, a fact plaintiffs’ expert Charles Reininga was ignorant of. Yamaha also showed that there was no evidence of arcing on the wires.

  Yamaha contended that the explosion in 2021 was due to the decedent’s failure to properly maintain and service the WaveRunner, and his failure to ventilate the engine compartment prior to starting the engine. There was no evidence that the decedent had performed any service or maintenance on the WaveRunner in the five years prior to the explosion, including required annual inspections of the WaveRunner and its fuel system, and as a result, the decedent did not discover a leak in the gas tank caused by the removal of a fuel tank vent hose either by decedent or an unknown third party.

  Further, that the decedent, who was under the influence of alcohol, failed to follow Yamaha’s repeated instructions to remove the seat on the WaveRunner to ventilate the engine compartment of gas vapors before starting the engine. Like with all personal watercraft, the seat on the WaveRunner must be removed to ventilate the engine compartment before starting the engine.  Plaintiffs’ experts conceded that, had the decedent removed the seat as it was claimed he did, the engine compartment would have ventilated, and the explosion would not have occurred. Yamaha also presented unrebutted testing showing that gasoline vapors could not have built up to a flammable level in the 15 minutes between when the decedent allegedly replaced the seat after opening it, and when he started the engine.