rosskoss

Aaah.....America. Some legal system

Ford to pay $83m over teen's death

A US jury has ordered Ford to pay more than $83 million to the family of a 17-year-old boy killed in a rollover when his friend fell asleep while driving an Explorer.

This is because the US four-wheel-drives allegedly overturn instead of sliding out of trouble.

Ford was liable in the accident because it sold a vehicle with poor handling and stability, the Florida jury said on Tuesday.

The company would appeal, a spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

The family of Lance Crossman Hall claimed Ford knew the Explorer was prone to rollovers and failed to warn consumers about the vehicle's defects.

Ford blamed defective Firestone tyres for the Explorer's handling and stability problems. The company knowingly continued to produce unsafe vehicles, Bruce Kaster, a lawyer for the family, said on Wednesday.

"This tragic accident occurred when the driver of the vehicle fell asleep at the wheel while travelling at highway speeds. Real-world experience and testing show that the Explorer is a safe vehicle, consistently performing as well as or better than other vehicles in its class," Ford spokeswoman Karen Shaughnessy said.

Hall was reclining in the front passenger seat and wearing his seat belt when the Explorer rolled over four times on State Road 93 in Florida's Collier County on April 20, 1997. He was ejected from the vehicle and died at the scene.

The driver of the 1996 Explorer, Melahn Parker, was charged with careless driving.

Parker attempted to regain control of the vehicle, but a handling problem with the Explorer caused it to turn sideways, which triggered the rollover, Kaster said.

"Ford vehicles are supposed to be designed to slide out in an emergency situation, not roll over, and that's according to Ford's own internal criteria," Kaster said. "But the Explorer is one of their vehicles that will not meet their own criteria. It will roll over."

The jury ordered Ford to pay the family $US1.2 million ($1.6 million) in damages, and $US60 million for the pain and suffering of Hall and his mother, Joan Hall-Edwards.

Ford was not ordered to pay punitive damages.

LexFather

Ridiculous. Ridiculous. Ridiculous.

JessePS

Oh well. May'be this be a wake up call to Ford and other SUV manufactures to fix this roll over problem and make the roofs stronger then what the US government asking for.

rosskoss

Maybe they oughta line the highway with pillows as well so when someone sleeps while driving they don't get hurt?

What "roll-over problem" are you talking about? My car has a habit of veering off the road when I fall asleep. Is that a problem too?

JellyBean

This is very old news. Found it odd that I hadn't heard about this in the mainstream media. Fox News would've been all over it. Google revealed a solitary 2005 australian news article about this verdict. Again, stale news.

mmarshall

This issue....the Explorer rollover problem......has been discussed literally to death here on CAR CHAT. Without going into all the details again for the umpteenth time, most of us felt that the blame was spread three ways.....First, Ford, for the last-generation Explorer's suspension and steering designs; Second, Firestone, for not giving the Wilderness AT tire an adequate safety margin against failure from overloating and overheating, and, Third, lazy, negligent owners for not maintaining at least the minimum recommended pressures and abusing the tires by driving on hot roads at high speeds and too-heavy vehicle weights.

wolverine

iTrader: (9)

uhhh how is it fords fault that he FELL ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL!!!!!!!!!!!! yea i bet ford caused that too huh

mmarshall

Obviously, driver incompetence, fatigue, or intoxication is not Ford's fault. I wasn't referring to that in my post. I was referring to the endless debate about the Explorer rollovers, and where fault DOES lie.

Lexmex

You know what State Road 93 is in Collier County, Florida (this where I call home), I-75!!!

Granted not everyone is an expert driver, but if you can't learn to drive something that big, don't drive it.

My neighbor where I live has an Expedition (I have driven it several times in high speed situations) and realistically you'd better know what you are doing before you get out on the road.

I am always astonished people get large SUVs and then can't drive them. In Mexico, the problem is even worse. Unlike back home in Collier County, the streets of Mexico City were never made for SUVs and sure enough I have seen at least 1 accident a week on the way to or from work involving a large SUV.

mmarshall

Another thing about big full-sized SUV's, especially the Ford and GM models based on their pickup trucks...Expedition, Navigator, Tahoe, Suburban, Denali, Escalade, etc..... is that IMO they have s***ty, spongy, unresponsive, and unreliable brakes (partly from their excessive weight), sometimes to the point that I consider them borderline unsafe. You got to give yourself a LOT of room for stopping. I have written and posted much in CAR CHAT about this problem.

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

Newer Explorer like my '06 have something called 'RSC' or Roll Stability Control which I guess is some kind of active stability software to correct driver actions likely to cause the vehicle to roll which of course isn't physically impossible given that it is a relatively tall vehicle. I've never driven my Explorer remotely close to a situation where I felt even the slightest bit unsafe. I find it to be tank like, stable, and has, er, 8 airbags I think including curtains. It is the safest vehicle I've ever owned.

Stage3

iTrader: (3)

They'll never see one cent from Ford. Which is good because this is frivolous. How about blaming the kid that fell asleep at the wheel? But, they would never do that... because that kid probably doesn't have two cent's to his name.

Jewcano

iTrader: (4)

Though Ford is at fault for having a poor design for their SUV, it is not their fault that the driver fell asleep at the wheel. They have no control over that, and have in no way shape or form and control over that scenario.

Hartawan

iTrader: (1)

Welcome to America! When you're broke, find someone to sue.

mmarshall

You can thank Volvo for the RSC (not surprising, wth Volvo's traditional emphasis on safety). It was developed several years ago for the Volvo XC90 and, as Ford had the rights to it as Volvo's owner, it was gradually adapted to Ford SUV's...one of which, of course, is your Explorer.

It is different from conventional VSC in that it not only includes yaw and steering input sensors for understeer or oversteer but additional sensors for body roll angle as well. As such, is more likely to prevent a rollover than regular VSC.