Chrysler News

Chrysler Whistleblower Continues His Work

July 14, 2003

Paul Sheridan is a former Chrysler chair of the safety team on the new minivan at the time. For ten years Sheridan worked at Chrysler but was fired after Chrysler said Sheridan was leading documents. When Sheridan was the head of the safety leadership team for Chryslers new minivan in 1993, his team pointed out several safety components that Ford Motor Co.s Windstar van utilized and was frustrated when Chrysler would not budge on the liftgate latches despite the NHTSA launching an investigation in early 1994 regarding them.

There had already been Chrysler lawsuits due to the liftgate latches failing in collisions and ejecting children from the back of the van, but found his team was not intended to make a final decision on a (safety) feature according to a memo written by the general manager of the minivan platform. When Sheridans team was broken up, the executive director of the Center for Auto Safety in Washington, Clarence Ditlow received an anonymous call from a Chrysler employee that called to report Chrysler minivan defects in the fall of 1994.

In 1994, NHTSA officially alerted Chrysler executives that its latch failure was a safety defecting affecting children, however some Chrysler top executives vowed to avoid a latch recall. Sheridan was fired in December 1994 after Chrysler security found out that he was the leak after examining company phone records. According to Ditlow, one of the biggest mistakes Chrysler ever made was to fire him. Sheridan went public and despite Chryslers March 1995 announcement to put replacement latches on over 4 million of its minivans, the NHTSA had already linked 37 deaths to the Chrysler latch defect.

Ditlow believes Sheridan is a little like Roger Clemens, hes hung in there a long time. Most whistleblowers burn out from the pressure. Sheridan believes Chryslers move to sue him for $82 million only shows the threat that he poses to the company by continuing to assist injured and deceased individuals because of Chrysler defects.

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