Saw this article in our local paper today, The Daily Southtown. March
17, 2005Ford, Mazda owe $27 Million for faulty seat design that contributed to the death of a South Holland ( IL. ) man.
by Chris Hack staff writer
A Cook County jury has awarded $27 million to the family of a South Holland man killed in a violent rear end collision five years ago. Jurors deliberated about three hours before handing up the judgement against Ford Motor Company and Mazda Motor Company, the two companies that designed and built the 1996 Ford Escort LX that James Mikolajczyk was driving in February 2000.
The lawsuit blamed the Escorts " Yielding" front seat design as a cause of death Mikolajaczyk's death. The Escort was stopped at red light when it was rear ended by a Cadillac that was later determined to be doing 60 mph.
According to the plaintiff's attorney Bruce Pfaff, the force of the impact bent the driver's seat backward about 60 degrees, allowing Mikolajczyk to slide out from under his seat belt and suffer a fatal injury when he slammed head first into the rear portion of the passenger compartment.
Mikolajczyk's 10 year old daughter, who was sitting in the back seat of the Escort survived the crash because of the rigidity of that seat, Pfaff said.
Ford engineers have long maintained that front seats were designed to bend backward in crashes in order to minimize neck injuries and whiplash in the low speed rear end crashes that are much more common than high speed one that left Mikolajczyk dead.
Attorneys for the automakers noted during the trial the Escorts front seat met government safety standards. But Pfaff said test done on other cars, including those made by BMW and Mercedes Benz have shown that more rigid front seats are equally safe in low speed crashes and provide superior protection in high speed rear end collisions.
ALthough Ford has strengthened the front seats in a few of its models, Pfaff said the yielding seat design still is widely used by the carmaker.
SIx years ago Paff's firm won a $14 million judgement in a similar lawsuit on behalf of a woman killed in a Ford Explorer in Hammond, Indiana.
We would love it if Ford Motor Co would wake up ad change their seats, Pfaff said Wednesday.
The deceased worked as a physicians assistant at the University Of Chicago Hospital he never regained consciousness after the accident and died three days later. He was 46.
The driver of the Cadillac, William Timberlake of Morgan Park, was convicted of drunk driving and reckless homicide and sentenced to six years in prison. Timberlake, 58 is expected to be paroled in September.