[ZTWsquared]

meford4u,Jan 23 2006, 04:31 PM Wrote:Like a plastic shield would have prevented him from not driving drunk and not ramming the rear end of their limo and they wouldn't of sustanined any injuries.  i don't buy it.
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You may or may not be right about American's suing too much ... but you otherwise missed the point entirely.

Whether or not the other driver was drunk has nothing to do with why they won an award because the cause of the accident is irrelevant to why Ford lost.

The point is that a design characteristic turned an otherwise survivable accident into a deadly one - smoke and fire killed those women not physical injuries.

The court determined that Ford knew about this design characteristic, had a fix for it and chose not to make the problem and the fix public knowledge ... and that if they had, and if that plastic shield had of been installed, the women would have survived.

In the court's eyes that made Ford culpable in their death. Is that worth money to the family for their loss? I'd say so.

If that had of been my wife or my mother ... better believe I'd sue.

And in the larger context ... the automotive industry and Ford in particular have proven that when it comes to doing the right thing, the only pressure they'll bend to is the massive negative publicity and the enormous financial losses associated with losing cases like this one.