--- title: "Accident Reconstruction Expert Not Allowed to Opine on the Safety of the Seat Heater" meta: "og:description": "The accident reconstruction expert was not qualified to offer opinions about the design or safety of the seat heater" "og:title": "Accident Reconstruction Expert Not Allowed to Opine on the Safety of the Seat Heater" author: "Expert Witness Profiler" description: "The accident reconstruction expert was not qualified to offer opinions about the design or safety of the seat heater" --- # Accident Reconstruction Expert Not Allowed to Opine on the Safety of the Seat Heater Posted on April 24, 2026 by Expert Witness Profiler Plaintiff Emily LaPrade has paraplegia with limited sensation in her lower body due to a spinal cord injury in 2014. While returning from a camping trip in September 2023, LaPrade rode in the front passenger seat of her family’s 2023 Volkswagen Tiguan. She claimed that she received second-degree burns after she used the vehicle’s seat heater for 20-30 minutes on the highest setting, and one hour on the heater’s middle setting. In 2024, LaPrade and Jonathan LaPrade (together, “Plaintiffs”) sued Defendant Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. (“Volkswagen” or “Defendant”) arguing that the seat heater in their car was defective. Defendant filed a _[Daubert](https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/daubert_standard)_ motion to exclude the testimony of Plaintiffs’ expert, [Roger Smedsrud](https://expertwitnessprofiler.com/expert-witness/Roger-Smedsrud/1574373). ## **Accident Reconstruction Expert Witness** [Roger W. Smedsrud](https://expertwitnessprofiler.com/expert-witness/Roger-Smedsrud/1574373) is a forensic mechanic specializing in accident reconstruction. With 32 years of experience as a mechanic and over 3,000 mechanical inspections of vehicles involved in traffic collisions, equipment accidents, or fraud, he has significant formal training on a variety of vehicles. [Want to know more about the challenges Roger Smedsrud has faced? Get the full details with our Challenge Study report](https://expertwitnessprofiler.com/order/add?eId=1574373&pId=3). ## **Discussion by the Court** ### **1. The Court will permit testimony regarding Smedsrud’s test results** Smedsrud is qualified to testify about the seat heater temperatures he observed via infrared thermometer and diagnostic data from Plaintiffs’ Tiguan. Smedsrud’s significant experience in vehicle repairs, diagnostic systems, and accident reconstruction qualifies him to testify about the tools he used, tests he performed, and data he collected during his examination of Plaintiffs’ vehicle. Defendant contended that Smedsrud’s testimony in this area is unreliable or irrelevant because “he did not design or conduct his testing in accordance with any Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) or International Organization for Standardization (ISO) guidelines.” The Court concluded that Smedsrud’s background and experience are sufficient for him to testify about the data he gathered. That he did not refer to a specific standard does not necessarily invalidate the temperature readouts themselves. ### **2. The Court will exclude testimony regarding the design or safety of the seat heater** Defendant asked the Court to exclude Smedsrud’s testimony about the design of the Tiguan’s seat heater—namely, his conclusion “that the temperatures set in this vehicle heated seat system are set too high from the factory.” Smedsrud is not qualified to offer opinions about the design or safety of the Tiguan’s seat heater. Smedsrud’s opinion did not discuss any standard by which he judged the temperature of the seat heater to be “too high.” He testified that he did not rely upon SAE or ISO standards, and that that he was unaware of “any publication that sets the maximum reasonable temperature for a seat heater.” Instead, he formed his conclusion upon the fact that he had “never seen one this high before.” But as Defendant noted, Smedsrud has never investigated an incident where someone was injured from a seat heater. He has only ever repaired a seat heater once—in his own Toyota, after the seat heater stopped working entirely. Plaintiffs argued that, even if Smedsrud did not rely on any standard, the SAE and ISO standards supported his conclusion that the temperatures of the seat heater were indeed “too high.” But this is irrelevant to the [Rule 702](https://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/fre/rule_702#:~:text=Rule%20702%20sets%20forth%20the,is%20a%20relatively%20narrow%20inquiry.) inquiry, which focuses “solely on principles and methodology, not on the conclusions that they generate.” ## **Held** The Court granted in part and denied in part Defendant’s _Daubert_ motion to exclude the testimony of Roger Smedsrud. ## **Key Takeaway** The dispositive question is “whether an expert’s methodology can be ‘challenged in some objective sense, or whether it is instead simply a subjective, conclusory approach that cannot reasonably be assessed for reliability.'” Smedsrud’s methodology is the latter. ## **Case Details:** --- ## **You Might Also Like** ![Crisis Management Expert Allowed to Opine on Corporate Behavior](https://ewp-blog.expertwitnessprofiler.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/blog-pic-640X480-2026-04-24T211020.013.jpg) [**Crisis Management Expert Allowed to Opine on Corporate Behavior**](https://expertwitnessprofiler.com/accident-reconstruction-expert-not-allowed-to-opine-on-the-safety-of-the-seat-heater/crisis-management-expert-allowed-to-opine-on-corporate-behavior)![Accident Reconstruction Expert Not Allowed to Opine on the Safety of the Seat Heater](https://ewp-blog.expertwitnessprofiler.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/blog-pic-640X480-2026-04-24T010518.338.jpg) [**Accident Reconstruction Expert Not Allowed to Opine on the Safety of the Seat Heater**](https://expertwitnessprofiler.com/accident-reconstruction-expert-not-allowed-to-opine-on-the-safety-of-the-seat-heater/accident-reconstruction-expert-not-allowed-to-opine-on-the-safety-of-the-seat-heater)![Maritime Expert Allowed to Opine on Safety Standards](https://ewp-blog.expertwitnessprofiler.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/blog-pic-640X480-2026-04-24T004329.589.jpg) [**Maritime Expert Allowed to Opine on Safety Standards**](https://expertwitnessprofiler.com/accident-reconstruction-expert-not-allowed-to-opine-on-the-safety-of-the-seat-heater/maritime-expert-allowed-to-opine-on-safety-standards)![Corrections Expert's Standard of Care Testimony Admitted](https://ewp-blog.expertwitnessprofiler.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/blog-pic-640X480-2026-04-23T161938.085.jpg) [**Corrections Expert’s Standard of Care Testimony Admitted**](https://expertwitnessprofiler.com/accident-reconstruction-expert-not-allowed-to-opine-on-the-safety-of-the-seat-heater/corrections-experts-standard-of-care-testimony-admitted)![Human Resources Expert Allowed to Opine on Termination](https://ewp-blog.expertwitnessprofiler.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/blog-pic-640X480-2026-04-22T200052.311.jpg) [**Human Resources Expert Allowed to Opine on Termination**](https://expertwitnessprofiler.com/accident-reconstruction-expert-not-allowed-to-opine-on-the-safety-of-the-seat-heater/human-resources-expert-allowed-to-opine-on-termination)