Personal Injury Law

Ford Settles Injury Lawsuits After SUV Paralyzes Woman

By Michael

The Ford Motor Company opted to settle for most of the requested $17.7 million in a personal injury lawsuit after a Ford SUV crash left a woman paralyzed from the neck down.

Ford decided to pay $16 million to Lynn Wheeler recently during the end of a trial in Clayton County, Ga., while they jury was deciding whether to fine Ford for punitive damages beyond the initially-requested $17.7 million, according to an article in the Fulton County Daily Report.

The jury ruled that Ford was liable for damages to compensate what Wheeler and her attorneys described as design problems with the Ford Explorer.

Around Christmas 2005, Wheeler was riding in the middle of the back seat in a 2002 Ford Explorer sport model SUV, which seats five passengers, according to the Fulton County Daily Report. Wheeler?s son was driving, his wife was seated in the front seat and Wheeler herself was seated between her two young grandchildren in booster seats.

A smaller sport coupe was coming the opposite way and lost control while making a turn. The vehicle slammed head-on into the Explorer. Alan Hamilton, one of the plaintiff?s attorneys, said that Wheeler?s son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren walked away from the car accident with ?essentially no significant injury at all.?

Wheeler, on the other hand, was severely injured. With a lap seat belt to hold her, Wheeler was sent forward and down at force when the rear seat latch failed and collapsed on her, according to the Daily Report.

The pre-trial report read that ?Lynn Wheeler?s head and neck were driven down and forward into the front seat and/or center console, catastrophically injuring her spinal cord.?

Hamilton said that Wheeler is also on a ventilator to help with breathing, in addition to being paralyzed.

The suit claimed the auto maker was negligent on the vehicle?s design of both the rear seat latch and the lap belt put in place for the middle seat rear seat, instead of a belt with a shoulder restraint of some sort.

The suit also claimed Ford did not provide enough warning for both the Wheelers and the general public about the possibility of the injury that happened to Lynn.

Ford argued that at the time, the Explorer had exceeded all government-mandated safety requirements.

Attorneys for the company argued further that the lap belt was a needed addition to accommodate child safety seats, and that they can be safer for smaller children who do not fit properly with shoulder-restraining belts.

Ford?s attorneys argued that it was not technologically possible to install a shoulder-belt in the middle of a bench seat, which is where Wheeler was seated.

Ford?s attorneys also argued that the rear seat latch was tested to hold through similar force as the accident that Wheeler was in.

Full post as published by The Injury Blog on February 15, 2010 (boomark / email).