Three years after TLC’s Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes was killed in a one-car crash while vacationing in Honduras, the late rapper’s mother, Wanda Lopes-Colemon, has filed a lawsuit against Mitsubishi, claiming the automaker failed to warn consumers that its Montero sport utility vehicle was rollover-susceptible. Lopes died in 2002, when the 2001 Montero she was driving tipped over; according to police, a fatal blow to the head killed the singer instantly.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the lawsuit – which names the Japanese automaker as well as its North American subsidiary – claims Lopes was driving at a normal speed and swerved to avoid a car that stopped in front of her, causing her SUV to flip. Lopes-Colemon’s attorney, Jeff Harris, told the newspaper he will use a study on vehicle rollovers to reinforce his claim that Mitsubishi should have warned consumers about the Montero’s potentially fatal design flaw.