- Auto Accident Injury
- Auto Deaths
- Back Injuries
- Brain Injury
- Car Accident Injury
- Catastrophic Injury
- Closed Head Injury
- Design Manufacturing
- Fuel Fed Fire Injury
- Head Injuries
- Occupant Ejections
- Paralysis
- Paraplegia
- Quadriplegia
- Roof Crush Injury
- Seat Belt Injuries
- Tempered Glass
- Tire Blow Out Injury
- Trailer Sway
- Traumatic Head Injury
Jury orders Ford to pay surviving spouse $10.2 million for SUV rollover death
March 30, 2005
In the fourth verdict against Ford in trials contesting the design of the Explorer's roof in less than 10 months, a Florida jury on March 18 ruled the Explorer's roof was defective and ordered the company to pay $10.2 million for economic damages, pain and suffering.
The latest verdict, which Ford plans on appealing, involved the death of a 26-year old woman of a fractured skull after a severe rollover accident in her 2000 Ford Explorer. With unanswered questions about how the SUV's roof caved in, the woman's family pursued a lawsuit that ended up revealing internal Ford Motor Co. documents and memos.
Company documents were shown to the jury in the lawsuit, revealing the Explorer's roof was made weaker after two redesigns in the 1990s after engineers had already recommended strengthening the roof. In 1995, Ford Explorer had a roof strength-to-weight ratio of 1.72. In 1999, the number had fallen to 1.56, barely over the federal minimum of 1.5, which concerned company engineers. Internal Ford e-mails unsealed at the trial revealed the concern company engineers had with the slim margin of safety.
The Detroit News reported in April 2004 that an estimated 7,000 people are killed or seriously injured each year when their vehicle roofs collapse, according to federal statistics. The paper found that in 1971 Ford and General Motors Corp. led an industry wide effort to persuade federal officials to adopt a minimum standard for roof strength after their vehicle fleets failed the government's first proposed test.
Since then, automakers have fought against upgrading the rules, known as standard 216, which safety experts have claimed is too weak to adequately protect the American public. An agency proposal to update the safety standards has been under review by the White House for several months, following the new research the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued in August 2004 on roof strength that established a link between roof collapse and injuries.For more information on suv rollover and crashworthiness, contact us to confer with an auto crash attorney.
Read More Crashworthiness News.....
If you have any questions about your legal rights regarding an injury caused by an auto defect, please contact us.
Recent News
The federal government is under increasing pressure to impose tougher regulations on vehicle crashworthiness. In a long overdue effort, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration...
