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Crash Victim Awarded $26.2 Million for Ford Faulty Equipment
March 30, 2006
A jury awarded $26.2 million to a driver who crashed into a flatbed truck and suffered severe injuries in a product liability lawsuit. Ford Motor Co. and a parts maker were found liable for faulty equipment.
The issue was an "under-ride guard," which is installed in vehicles to prevent them from becoming wedged underneath trucks during a collision.
The plaintiff Michael Boyle sued Ford and Garden State Engine and Equipment of Somerville after the under-ride guard snapped off the truck on impact. Boyle was 22 at the time of the accident in 2002 and was commuting to his job in New York City when his 1994 Ford Taurus collided into the back of the 1998 Ford F-800 flatbed truck.
"The car went all the way underneath.The hood and passenger compartment of the car were sheered off. The hood was in the back seat," said Boyle's attorney John North.
Boyle's face was displaced from his skull, which required 40 titanium plates to correct, and he sustained serious injuries to his brain. According to North, Boyle continues to suffer from double vision, has no sense of taste or smell, no feeling from his upper lip to the top of his head, and increased processing time to think.
Boyle filed a lawsuit against Ford, the designer of the truck's cab and chassis, for failing to include an under-ride guard or directions for how a guard should be attached to the frame of the truck.
While federal safety standards do not require vehicle manufacturers to add the guard or provide instructions when designing "incomplete chassis cab vehicles," which is what the F-800 was, the truck was converted by final-stage manufacturer Garden State.
Boyle sued Garden State as well for putting in a guard, which the suit claimed was "poorly designed and doomed to fail."
The jury held Ford liable for 70 percent of the damages and Garden State was responsible for 30 percent. Ford plans to appeal.
Ford spokeswoman Kathleen Vokes said that while the company is concerned about Boyle's injuries, he is the sole cause of the accident. "Driving at approximately 60 mph, he plowed into the back of an F-800 truck," she said.
An eyewitness said Boyle made no attempt to break and his lights were off before the accident. Boyle pleaded guilty to unsafe driving charges associated with the accident, but the trial court did not allow Ford to bring up the guilty plea during the trial.
North said the case was about faulty equipment and not Boyle's driving charges.
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