Re: Teen driver falls asleep, dies, gets $61M


Old Wolf wrote:
> http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14014165
>
> 17 year old driver FALLS ASLEEP at the wheel, and his Exploder
> ends up flipping, killing him. Any normal parent would bemoan
> their son's carelessness and driving while tired. But no, this lot
> gets $61 million from the car manufacturer. I wonder if the parents
> are now contemplating clever ways to off their other children and
> double their money.
>
> I hope (for the sake of US residents who'll end up paying the price)
> that this loses on appeal. God forbid that all cars will now have
> to be designed to not kill their driver if the driver falls asleep.

Miami: A jury in Miami has ordered Ford Motor Co. to pay 61 million
dollars to the family of a teenager who died in a Ford Explorer that
rolled over, a lawyer in the case said.

Attorney Bruce Kaster said the decision was reached this week after a
Ford engineer testified in a deposition that he had recommended in 1989
that the Ford Explorer sport utility vehicle be lowered and widened to
increase stability, but that the changes were not made until 2001.

Jurors ordered Ford to pay 61 million dollars in compensatory damages
to the family of Lance Hall, who died on a Florida highly in 1997 when
the Explorer in which he was traveling rolled over several times. The
jurors were told that the driver had briefly nodded off and lost
control of the vehicle when he woke up. Both Hall and the driver were
17 years old at the time.

"If the vehicle didn't have a defect in its handling, in its steering,
they would have been able to steer the Explorer back in the road," said
Kaster, an expert in SUV rollovers who represented Hall's family.

"Ford did not want to delay the introduction of the Explorer.
Accordingly, Ford produced a vehicle they knew was unstable in order to
maximize their profits," he said.

Ford replaced some 30 million tires in 2000 and 2001 after federal
regulators documented tread separation was involved in hundreds of
Explorer accidents.

The three-billion-dollar replacement program was prompted in part by an
official investigation that linked 271 fatalities and 800 accidents to
events in which Explorers tipped over after parts of their Firestone
tires peeled off at high speeds.

Bridgestone Firestone last month agreed to pay 240 million dollars to
Ford Motor Co. to settle liability over the recall of defective tires
linked to the deaths.

--------

Sounds to me more like Ford fucked up big time by rushing a dangerous
product to market, and this just follows in the path of the previous
Explorer rollover suits. Even if the driver makes a mistake, the
vehicle shouldn't be so poorly designed to nearly guarantee a
spectacular rollover.

Dave

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