stellar
06-05-2004, 06:44 PM
http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/06/03/ford.rollover.ap/index.html
Ford plans to appeal
Thursday, June 3, 2004 Posted: 9:07 PM EDT (0107 GMT)
SAN DIEGO, California (AP) -- A jury has ordered Ford Motor Co. to pay nearly $369 million to a woman paralyzed in a rollover accident involving a Ford Explorer, the nation's best-selling sport utility vehicle.
The jury Thursday ordered the No. 2 automaker to pay $246 million in punitive damages. It awarded more than $122.6 million in compensatory damages Tuesday.
The award is one of the biggest ever against the automaker and marked the first loss after 11 victories in rollover lawsuits involving the Ford Explorer.
Ford, based in Dearborn, Michigan, has said it will appeal.
The trial involved a January 2002 accident east of San Diego. Driver Benetta Buell-Wilson swerved to avoid a metal object and lost control of her 1997 Explorer, which rolled 41/2 times.
During a news conference after the verdict, Buell-Wilson, a 49-year-old mother of two, offered to knock $100 million off the damage award if Ford would fix the design problems in the Explorer that left her permanently paralyzed from the waist down.
"I'm hoping they'll fix what's out there because I don't want what's happened to me to happen to anyone else," Buell-Wilson said Thursday.
In a statement, Ford insisted the Explorer was safe.
"Although the offer makes a great sound bite, it doesn't change the facts: The Explorer meets or exceeds all Federal safety standards. There is no defect with the Explorer," spokeswoman Kathleen Vokes said.
"The Explorer is an outstanding vehicle with a solid safety record and we will continue to aggressively defend our products."
Ford has sold more than 5 million Explorers since the vehicle was introduced in 1990, she said.
Dennis Schoville, Buell-Wilson's attorney, contended Ford had sacrificed passenger safety for profits. The lawsuit involved design issues found on all Explorers made through 2001, Schoville said.
Schoville said Ford declined to follow its engineers' suggestions to widen the Explorer's wheel track or to lower its center of gravity -- costly changes that would make the vehicle more stable. Concern about costs also kept Ford from sufficiently reinforcing the Explorer's roof to protect passengers in a vehicle "they know is going to roll over," he said.
"This is an important message because there are a lot of people out there that are driving these vehicles that don't have, like Mrs. Wilson, any clue of what could happen," Schoville said.
I'm generally offput by huge civil judgements, but I'll say hurrah to this one.
Hurrah.
I really don't carry the flag against SUVs as being gas guzzlers or polluters. If it doesn't bother the people who drive SUVs and are paying for the gas, it doesn't bother me and the subjective comparison on pollution is invalid. That said, as an design engineer it bothers me greatly to see a structurally instable machine be put out into the market. Don't fool yourself - the vast majority of SUVs are unstable and it's not the tires. It's the center of gravity and the center of mass. Every design engineer takes these factors into consideration when designing a transport frame, or a ship, or a car. But not a SUV because the engineer knows a SUV will never satisfy stability requirements but the execs still want to put out an attractive and rugged-looking body type so the engineers step aside and things like paralysis and death results.
Hopefully this judgement will help.
Ford plans to appeal
Thursday, June 3, 2004 Posted: 9:07 PM EDT (0107 GMT)
SAN DIEGO, California (AP) -- A jury has ordered Ford Motor Co. to pay nearly $369 million to a woman paralyzed in a rollover accident involving a Ford Explorer, the nation's best-selling sport utility vehicle.
The jury Thursday ordered the No. 2 automaker to pay $246 million in punitive damages. It awarded more than $122.6 million in compensatory damages Tuesday.
The award is one of the biggest ever against the automaker and marked the first loss after 11 victories in rollover lawsuits involving the Ford Explorer.
Ford, based in Dearborn, Michigan, has said it will appeal.
The trial involved a January 2002 accident east of San Diego. Driver Benetta Buell-Wilson swerved to avoid a metal object and lost control of her 1997 Explorer, which rolled 41/2 times.
During a news conference after the verdict, Buell-Wilson, a 49-year-old mother of two, offered to knock $100 million off the damage award if Ford would fix the design problems in the Explorer that left her permanently paralyzed from the waist down.
"I'm hoping they'll fix what's out there because I don't want what's happened to me to happen to anyone else," Buell-Wilson said Thursday.
In a statement, Ford insisted the Explorer was safe.
"Although the offer makes a great sound bite, it doesn't change the facts: The Explorer meets or exceeds all Federal safety standards. There is no defect with the Explorer," spokeswoman Kathleen Vokes said.
"The Explorer is an outstanding vehicle with a solid safety record and we will continue to aggressively defend our products."
Ford has sold more than 5 million Explorers since the vehicle was introduced in 1990, she said.
Dennis Schoville, Buell-Wilson's attorney, contended Ford had sacrificed passenger safety for profits. The lawsuit involved design issues found on all Explorers made through 2001, Schoville said.
Schoville said Ford declined to follow its engineers' suggestions to widen the Explorer's wheel track or to lower its center of gravity -- costly changes that would make the vehicle more stable. Concern about costs also kept Ford from sufficiently reinforcing the Explorer's roof to protect passengers in a vehicle "they know is going to roll over," he said.
"This is an important message because there are a lot of people out there that are driving these vehicles that don't have, like Mrs. Wilson, any clue of what could happen," Schoville said.
I'm generally offput by huge civil judgements, but I'll say hurrah to this one.
Hurrah.
I really don't carry the flag against SUVs as being gas guzzlers or polluters. If it doesn't bother the people who drive SUVs and are paying for the gas, it doesn't bother me and the subjective comparison on pollution is invalid. That said, as an design engineer it bothers me greatly to see a structurally instable machine be put out into the market. Don't fool yourself - the vast majority of SUVs are unstable and it's not the tires. It's the center of gravity and the center of mass. Every design engineer takes these factors into consideration when designing a transport frame, or a ship, or a car. But not a SUV because the engineer knows a SUV will never satisfy stability requirements but the execs still want to put out an attractive and rugged-looking body type so the engineers step aside and things like paralysis and death results.
Hopefully this judgement will help.