Jury awards a woman <Dr Evil> 1 beeellion dollars...almost

[PowerEngineer]

I'm a bit surprised by the people who believe Ford (and other SUV makers) bear no responsibility for the safety of the vehicles they sell. It's pretty clear that manufacturers have to make trade-offs between vehicle cost and safety while designing their vehicles, and that their decisions are seldom made evident to the buying public in their massive advertizing efforts. There has to be some way to hold them accountable for the decisions they make.

If they had made it clear that these vehicles required more skillful or conservative driving, then I would not fault them. They chose instead to said nothing to correct the general public's implicit assumption that SUV's were the driving equivalent of a car.

Here are some facts from a past Frontline on SUV's:

• 
  There will be an estimated 70,000 SUV rollovers in 2002, in which it's estimated 2000 people will die.
  
  In the 10-year period during which Ford-Firestone related rollovers caused some 300 deaths, more than 12,000 people -- 40 times as many -- died in SUV rollover crashes unrelated to tire failure.
  
  A Ford Explorer is 16 times as likely as the typical family car to kill occupants of another vehicle in a crash.
  
  1 out of 4 new vehicles sold in the U.S. is an SUV, making it the most popular type of vehicle in America. The Ford Explorer is the most popular SUV in the world.

Like many jury awards, the amount seems quite excessive. But that certainly doesn't mean that Ford is blameless!

 

[PlatinumGold]

Originally posted by: waggy

Originally posted by: PlatinumGold

Originally posted by: waggy
lets see high rate of speed+ swerving at high rate of speed +roll over =$$$$$


i read this a few days ago. i was not suprised at the verdict. but it will be overturned.

I'm all for nailing the people at fault. But Ford is not the one to blame here. its called BAD LUCK.


Gurk: so feeling safe and buying a bigger vehicle is wrong? If it comes down to my daughter and you in a wreck trust me I want my daughter safe. If that means buying a bigger vehicle then i will do that.

while i did go from a small escort to a Taurus I have no need for a SUV. though i do own a F-250 and a had a old suburban but then again i live on a farm. Now we are thinking of getting a Mini-van (wtf they are not MINI!)

comeon, they are smaller than the econolines. you can't call them Vans like you do the econolines (but yes they are large vehicles, just smaller than Full Size Vans). mb call them midivans. 🙂

pfft. we used to have a full size van. We just looked at getting a Freestar and its not much smaller then the full size was! not as tall but pretty darn huge.

my wife loves it. she likes the option to fold the seats down. sigh women.

i hate chryslers, you probably do to, but the chrysler minivans have the best seating arrangement options of any van on the market right now. the Toyota is the best, but the chryslers seating stuff is pretty sweet. check one out.

 

[PlatinumGold]

Originally posted by: PowerEngineer
I'm a bit surprised by the people who believe Ford (and other SUV makers) bear no responsibility for the safety of the vehicles they sell. It's pretty clear that manufacturers have to make trade-offs between vehicle cost and safety while designing their vehicles, and that their decisions are seldom made evident to the buying public in their massive advertizing efforts. There has to be some way to hold them accountable for the decisions they make.

If they had made it clear that these vehicles required more skillful or conservative driving, then I would not fault them. They chose instead to said nothing to correct the general public's implicit assumption that SUV's were the driving equivalent of a car.

Here are some facts from a past Frontline on SUV's:

• 
  There will be an estimated 70,000 SUV rollovers in 2002, in which it's estimated 2000 people will die.
  
  In the 10-year period during which Ford-Firestone related rollovers caused some 300 deaths, more than 12,000 people -- 40 times as many -- died in SUV rollover crashes unrelated to tire failure.
  
  A Ford Explorer is 16 times as likely as the typical family car to kill occupants of another vehicle in a crash.
  
  1 out of 4 new vehicles sold in the U.S. is an SUV, making it the most popular type of vehicle in America. The Ford Explorer is the most popular SUV in the world.

Like many jury awards, the amount seems quite excessive. But that certainly doesn't mean that Ford is blameless!

but at which point? the quote i posted above regarding, if the wheel track had been wider and the center of gravity lower, that could be said about ANY car and still hold true. so, where do you draw the line? or do you just say, the taller the vehicle, the more likely it is to roll over, let the driver drive appropriately?

 

[waggy]

Originally posted by: PlatinumGold

i hate chryslers, you probably do to, but the chrysler minivans have the best seating arrangement options of any van on the market right now. the Toyota is the best, but the chryslers seating stuff is pretty sweet. check one out.

we are are also going to look at the town and country and the Grand voyager. They have where you can fold down ALL the seats. thats pretty nice. We are going to look at all the diffrent ones. But right now the Freestar is the favorite.

But i'm a ford guy. i will either buy Ford or Honda. but i don't care for the ford van. a friend of mine has one and it had a bunch of problems. though i hear they fixed that in the latter releases.

 

[PlatinumGold]

Originally posted by: waggy

Originally posted by: PlatinumGold

i hate chryslers, you probably do to, but the chrysler minivans have the best seating arrangement options of any van on the market right now. the Toyota is the best, but the chryslers seating stuff is pretty sweet. check one out.

we are are also going to look at the town and country and the Grand voyager. They have where you can fold down ALL the seats. thats pretty nice. We are going to look at all the diffrent ones. But right now the Freestar is the favorite.

But i'm a ford guy. i will either buy Ford or Honda. but i don't care for the ford van. a friend of mine has one and it had a bunch of problems. though i hear they fixed that in the latter releases.

i'm a ford guy too, we have the ford windstar. i will be honest tho, the quality on the windstar was definitely not too good. drivers side power controls went out, windshield wipers motor replaced, antilock break cpu needs to be replaced and that's with only like 80k miles on it. for the first time in my life, i'm seriously considering buying a toyota.

 

[wyvrn]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674
I am Happy Ford got nailed. GM and Dodge should have to pay simply because they produce the Mamoth SUV's too.

Yes, but you are a tree-hugging attention-whore, so your opinion doesn't count.

 

[Turkish]

Originally posted by: wyvrn

Originally posted by: dmcowen674
I am Happy Ford got nailed. GM and Dodge should have to pay simply because they produce the Mamoth SUV's too.

Yes, but you are a tree-hugging attention-whore, so your opinion doesn't count.

lmao.

 

[waggy]

Originally posted by: PlatinumGold

Originally posted by: waggy

Originally posted by: PlatinumGold

i hate chryslers, you probably do to, but the chrysler minivans have the best seating arrangement options of any van on the market right now. the Toyota is the best, but the chryslers seating stuff is pretty sweet. check one out.

we are are also going to look at the town and country and the Grand voyager. They have where you can fold down ALL the seats. thats pretty nice. We are going to look at all the diffrent ones. But right now the Freestar is the favorite.

But i'm a ford guy. i will either buy Ford or Honda. but i don't care for the ford van. a friend of mine has one and it had a bunch of problems. though i hear they fixed that in the latter releases.

i'm a ford guy too, we have the ford windstar. i will be honest tho, the quality on the windstar was definitely not too good. drivers side power controls went out, windshield wipers motor replaced, antilock break cpu needs to be replaced and that's with only like 80k miles on it. for the first time in my life, i'm seriously considering buying a toyota.

yeah we had a windstar. Man what a piece of crap it was. it had a bad head gasket, and a bunch of little stuff go out on us.

Wich is why im kinda against the Freestar and looking at all other brands. even the hyundi one! heh

 

[Gurck]

Originally posted by: waggy
Gurk: so feeling safe and buying a bigger vehicle is wrong? If it comes down to my daughter and you in a wreck trust me I want my daughter safe. If that means buying a bigger vehicle then i will do that.

And if she's at fault and I'm dead, that's fine? Would you feel any sense of guilt? Or would you do what everyone else has such an easy time doing - lay the blame with someone else, for instance me for not having a similar size tank to withstand the impact...

So no, I wouldn't say it's wrong. That's too black &amp; white... problems in our society aren't the result of a few people doing 'wrong' things or having 'wrong' points of view; they're the culmination of millions of decisions &amp; ways of thinking which, while not 'wrong' per se, could be better.

 

[flxnimprtmscl]

You know, everyone you ever talk with about lawsuits like this are disgusted by them. That being said, where the fvck are they finding these juries? I'd seriously love to know who the hell these people are.

 

[Gurck]

Originally posted by: flxnimprtmscl
You know, everyone you ever talk with about lawsuits like this are disgusted by them. That being said, where the fvck are they finding these juries? I'd seriously love to know who the hell these people are.

My aunt works for a law firm near the city, she says cases like this wouldn't even make it to trial in our county, but in the city they not only routinely do, but are won and with huge settlements as well. Perhaps poorer people are more apt to stick it to the Man (corporations) or empathize with people who're victims of said 'Man'? Where were this case and the McDonalds coffee case tried? What about the fat people sueing McDonalds (which got thrown out of court)?

 

[Vic]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674
I am Happy Ford got nailed. GM and Dodge should have to pay simply because they produce the Mamoth SUV's too.

Troll. :roll: Car companies make what their customers want to buy. Ford III has said many times that he wishes Ford could stop selling those SUV's but that, if they did, the marketplace would force them out of business.
Once you had some respect here, Dave. Now you're just another fscking idiot.

Originally posted by: PowerEngineer
I'm a bit surprised by the people who believe Ford (and other SUV makers) bear no responsibility for the safety of the vehicles they sell. It's pretty clear that manufacturers have to make trade-offs between vehicle cost and safety while designing their vehicles, and that their decisions are seldom made evident to the buying public in their massive advertizing efforts. There has to be some way to hold them accountable for the decisions they make.

If they had made it clear that these vehicles required more skillful or conservative driving, then I would not fault them. They chose instead to said nothing to correct the general public's implicit assumption that SUV's were the driving equivalent of a car.

Here are some facts from a past Frontline on SUV's:

• 
  There will be an estimated 70,000 SUV rollovers in 2002, in which it's estimated 2000 people will die.
  
  In the 10-year period during which Ford-Firestone related rollovers caused some 300 deaths, more than 12,000 people -- 40 times as many -- died in SUV rollover crashes unrelated to tire failure.
  
  A Ford Explorer is 16 times as likely as the typical family car to kill occupants of another vehicle in a crash.
  
  1 out of 4 new vehicles sold in the U.S. is an SUV, making it the most popular type of vehicle in America. The Ford Explorer is the most popular SUV in the world.

Like many jury awards, the amount seems quite excessive. But that certainly doesn't mean that Ford is blameless!

Ford is blameless, except for the fact that the sold so damn many Explorers, which make all the statistics look inflated. I have owned, for many years, another vehicle that was said to be rollover defective, and that another excessively large award was given to to some dumb bitch who rolled one because she could drive. A '93 Toyota 4x4. It drives fine. I've never even come close to rolling it. Don't whip the wheel at highway speeds like an idiot ok? ANY car can roll if you're stupid enough.

Originally posted by: flxnimprtmscl
You know, everyone you ever talk with about lawsuits like this are disgusted by them. That being said, where the fvck are they finding these juries? I'd seriously love to know who the hell these people are.

The lawyers pick them. Don't you know what's wrong with our legal system? The foxes guards the henhouse, and all the lawyers can think about is their cut of the settlement.

But yaknow what, Ford doesn't actually pay for this settlement, or even the trial or anything like that. For one thing, they'll write it off, so a goodly portion falls on the taxpayers. And then the bean counters will just raise the price of every vehicle (or cut the quality is some hidden way) that Ford sells, so that every one who buys a Ford will suffer the brunt of the cost so that some dumb bitch who can't drive and her lawyers could be rich.
That's why some people call this the "litigation tax". Hey, ain't America great? No where else on earth can you get rich from being ignorantly incompetent. I bet she was on her cell phone when she wrecked too...

 

[Triumph]

there are a lot of people out there that are driving these vehicles that don't have, like Mrs. Wilson, any clue

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: Vic

Originally posted by: dmcowen674
I am Happy Ford got nailed. GM and Dodge should have to pay simply because they produce the Mamoth SUV's too.

Ford III has said many times that he wishes Ford could stop selling those SUV's but that, if they did, the marketplace would force them out of business.
Once you had some respect here, Dave. Now you're just another fscking idiot.

I never claimed not to be an idiot. I go to the bathroom the same as you and Ford III.

He is a wuss for not putting his money where his mouth is and I'd say that to his face.

He could do the right thing and lead this Country but no he choses to be a wuss.

 

[digitalsm]

Damn, my Uncle who passed away from complications from a rollover accident involving a Big Three car company, didnt get nearly as much. Then again they settled out of court, and I dont really know what they recieved(had to have been less than $5mil).

My uncle lived for over 10 years as a quadraplegic as a result of the accident.

In reality this award will NOT hold up in court. It will be lowered significantly. All the several hundred million dollar verdicts of late will all eventually be lowered to under well under $50million once all the appeals are done. Especially the recent cases of asbestos.

 

that left her permanently paralyzed from the waist down.

How many of you mindless bashers are paralyzed from the waist down? She's never going to walk again, let alone drive another car.
Do you have any idea how much of a hardship that puts on a person that their entire family for the rest of their lives?

I hope that everyone who detests this woman and what she did, has a serious life altering implication that puts things into perspective for you.

 

[UNCjigga]

We need some sort of lawsuit reform act to address:

1) Tort reform
2) Corporate liability
3) Class-action lawsuits
4) Patent law/Intellectual Property

 

[SilentZero]

Damn, I hate people like that. They screw up, roll their car/SUV, then blame it on the automaker. Such a crock. But most likely she won't see that money. Ford will just keep appealing it.

 

[ElFenix]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674


He could do the right thing and lead this Country but no he choses to be a wuss.

that assumes people would follow, which i seriously doubt. and if they did, and they went out of business because of it, you'd then cry about 'corporate thugs' screwing all the workers out of jobs.

hell, you want to know the vehicle with the highest rollever rates? its the chevy corvette, and the center of gravity is about as low as you can make it.

 

[PlatinumGold]

Originally posted by: ElFenix

Originally posted by: dmcowen674


He could do the right thing and lead this Country but no he choses to be a wuss.

that assumes people would follow, which i seriously doubt. and if they did, and they went out of business because of it, you'd then cry about 'corporate thugs' screwing all the workers out of jobs.

hell, you want to know the vehicle with the highest rollever rates? its the chevy corvette, and the center of gravity is about as low as you can make it.

agreed. it's about the driver.

someone explain this quote to me.

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.

now, give me ONE car you could say that about and it NOT be true?? EVERY car on the road and that was EVER on the road would be less likely to roll over if you lowered the center of gravity and widened the track.

 

[Mookow]

Originally posted by: ScoobMaster
Here - allow me to do an "NY-Times style out of context quote" from her lawyer: (the last line of the CNN article linked)


"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......."
🙂 😉

You could be the next Michael Moore... just make sure to bulk up a little on the Oreos/candy/ice cream/butter sticks.

 

[goblue420]

"There is no defect with the Explorer,"

This b!tch should be beat with a baseball bat.

 

[PlatinumGold]

Originally posted by: goblue420
"There is no defect with the Explorer,"

This b!tch should be beat with a baseball bat.

quote the whole thing next time b1tch

"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.

are there cost cuts made? yes. do they make compromises in production and engineering? yes.

did it meet federal safety standards? yes.

end of story.

 

Please provide some sort of backing to support the corvette having the highest rollover rate.

 

[goblue420]

Originally posted by: PlatinumGold

Originally posted by: goblue420
"There is no defect with the Explorer,"

This b!tch should be beat with a baseball bat.

quote the whole thing next time b1tch

"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.

are there cost cuts made? yes. do they make compromises in production and engineering? yes.

did it meet federal safety standards? yes.

end of story.

so your point is?