Attorneys for the plaintiffs submitted evidence from nearly 80 similar accidents resulting in death or injury, in which car roofs were crushed.
(Photo: Bloomberg)
Woodstock After a fatal accident, a US court ordered the carmaker Ford to pay $1.7 billion (around €1.6 billion). Attorney James Butler Jr. announced on Sunday that a jury in Gwinnett County, Georgia, had made the decision late last week. He represented the two children of a couple who died in a Ford pickup accident in April 2014. The car had overturned.
In a civil lawsuit filed by the children, the tragedy was traced to suspected dangerously defective roofs on Ford pickups.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs filed evidence from nearly 80 similar accidents resulting in death or injury in which car roofs were crushed, Butler’s law firm said. More deaths and serious injuries are to be expected as millions of these trucks are on the roads. The fact that punitive damages have now been awarded will hopefully serve as a warning to people driving these cars that have been sold by Ford.
A representative of the car manufacturer announced that he would appeal the verdict. That Ford and the company’s engineers irresponsibly and intentionally put customers at risk is simply not the case.
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