Conor:
I drive down the road, a steering component fails due to an unforseeable defect, I pile into a motorway bridge as I’ve no control over steering and cannot stop in time. I’ve had a collision, am I to blame, is the mechanic who examined the part in the last safety check and could see nothing wrong to blame, is the manufacturer’s QC who could see nothing wrong to blame?
I would think that a steering defect that is so significant as to cause a total failure would have had indicators leading up to it. So either, as the driver you noticed excess play but ignored it, or the mechanic who overlooked it during a routine maintenance check. A human would ultimately bear responsibility for the eventual failure.