tampered glass kills boy!
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tampered glass kills boy! - 9/15/2005 5:28:46 PM
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cctxfish
Posts: 735
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Joined: 1/12/2005
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A Nueces County jury has decided that the window glass used by Ford Motor Co. in its Expedition sport utility vehicle is primarily to blame for a 10-year-old boy's death, and that Ford should pay the family $42 million.
Ford said reckless driving caused the accident, and that the company will appeal.
"I feel real good," said Mikal Watts, a Corpus Christi attorney in the case against Ford, after the verdict Tuesday. "I have been pursuing better seatbelts and laminated side glass for 15 years."
The jury deliberated about six hours and found that the 2000 Expedition has defectively designed occupant restraint and protection systems. The jury awarded $22,010,877 in actual damages and $20 million in exemplary damages.
According to court documents, the jury also decided that Ford was 90 percent responsible for the death of 10-year-old Matthew Marroquin and that Ruth Ellen Olson, the driver of the vehicle that hit the Expedition in which Marroquin was riding, was 10 percent responsible for the child's death.
The civil suit was the result of a traffic collision on May 23, 2004, in the 10400 block of South Padre Island Drive. Counsel for the plaintiffs said the use of tempered glass on the sides of the vehicle, instead of laminated glass used on front windshields, is costing people their lives.
The suit maintained that laminated glass is more effective in preventing people from being ejected from a vehicle in case of a rollover.
Ford released an official statement Wednesday:
"Our heartfelt concern goes out to everyone affected by this accident, caused when a reckless driver ran a red light and broad-sided the Marroquins' vehicle. This tragic result would have occurred in virtually any other vehicle."
Ford will appeal, said Kathleen Vokes, legal, news and public affairs manager for Ford Motor Co.
Richard Alderman, a professor of law at University of Houston School of Law, said all vehicles should be safer but industry standards don't demand perfection, and neither does the public.
"There's no question every car could be made safer," Alderman said. "If they did that, it would make them more expensive, uglier and less fuel efficient. That's not what the public wants and that's not what the law requires."
He said it was possible that the Nueces County case and a $28 million verdict in Crystal City against Ford last March, also brought to court by Watts, could lead to manufacturing changes, but those changes could be slow and do not have to be made. Ford has filed an appeal in that case.
James Hada, Watts' co-counsel in the Nueces County case, said the time for Ford to make the changes is long overdue.
"It is time for Ford to do the right thing," he said, "and either fix the problem or take the vehicles with tempered glass off the road."
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