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Ford Pickup Spontaneously Combusts, Family Sues
October 19 , 2006
A New Hampshire family is suing Ford Motor Co. because their Ford F150 pickup truck spontaneously combusted in their driveway, burning down their house, and destroying their other vehicle.
John and Kimberly Regan filed the lawsuit against Ford Motor Co. in September claiming that their 2000 Ford F150 set itself on fire in the driveway nearly three hours after John Regan parked it.
The fire spread from the engine bay to the garage, and eventually burned the house down. Everything in the garage was destroyed, including the couples 2003 Dodge Durango.
The suit claims that the fire resulted from a cruise control system that employed a faulty switch the same type of switch that Ford included in millions of vehicles produced between 1992 and 2003.
The switch is responsible for deactivating the cruise control when the driver uses the brakes, but electricity continues to run through it even when the ignition is off, and the vehicle is parked. Experts suspect brake fluid leaked onto the cruise control electrical components, and caught on fire. The flames spread from there.
The cruise control problem eventually forced Ford to recall millions of vehicles produced between 1992 and 2003.
As of January of 2005, this problem has caused at least 65 confirmed fires.
The Recalled Vehicles
Ford recalled over a million of these vehicles over dangerous cruise control switch issues:
1994-2002 Ford F-250, F-350, F-450, and F-550 pickup trucks
2000-2002 Ford Excursions
1994-1996 Ford Econoline vans
1996-2002 E-450 Vans
1998 Ford Explorers
1998 Mercury Mountaineers
However, some consumer advocates contend that the problem exists in other Ford vehicles that were not recalled.
For more information on crashworthiness and Ford recalls, contact us to confer with an attorney.
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