Ford Trucks in $1.7 Billion Verdict Weren’t Subject to Tougher Safety Rules

Car producers, together with Ford, had lobbied earlier than the rule change that the stiffer requirements shouldn’t apply to their heavier vehicles, authorities filings present, saying the security advantages have been nonetheless unsure for some of these autos.

The regulator, the Nationwide Freeway Site visitors Security Administration, or NHTSA, on the time determined to not embrace the heavier vehicles within the laws. In 2009, following an order by Congress, NHTSA prolonged the harder roof-safety guidelines to vehicles with a better gross weight.

On Friday, a jury in Georgia decided punitive damages ought to be imposed on Ford for promoting 5.2 million Tremendous Responsibility vehicles from mannequin years 1999-2016 with what the plaintiffs alleged have been faulty roofs vulnerable to collapse in a rollover accident.

The case was introduced by the kids of a Georgia couple, Melvin and Voncile Hill, who have been killed whereas driving a 2002 Ford F-250 pickup truck. The pickup truck blew out a tire and rolled over, crushing the 2 occupants inside, in response to court docket paperwork filed by the plaintiffs.

Ford, which says it plans to attraction, stated that the roof of the 2002 F-250 pickup truck was fairly secure as designed, met trade requirements and wasn’t coated by the federal roof-crush necessities that have been adopted within the early Nineteen Nineties, court docket paperwork present. The Dearborn, Mich., auto maker has additionally stated that the tire on this explicit truck had an incorrect load-carrying capability, which induced it to catastrophically fail, and the victims had improperly used their seat belts, in response to court docket filings.

Typically in instances involving high-dollar punitive damages, the ultimate quantity is scaled again within the appeals course of.

The case highlights how auto laws that evolve over time can turn out to be a degree of rivalry years later when security considerations emerge about older autos. The federal roof-crush requirement has been invoked by plaintiffs within the Georgia lawsuit, in addition to comparable instances involving Ford vehicles and deadly rollover crashes, information present.

A pretrial order within the Hills’ case stated that Ford has recognized 162 lawsuits and 83 comparable incidents of roof crush, involving heavy-duty vehicles offered by means of the 1999-2016 mannequin years.

NHTSA, the U.S. auto trade’s primary security regulator, stated this week that the 2002 F-250 pickup truck was constructed to satisfy the roof-crush necessities on the time for autos with its gross weight. As a result of it met the laws, the company stated, it didn’t take a look at this explicit mannequin for roof-crush efficiency.

NHTSA’s publicly obtainable information present no investigative motion or security recollects associated to incidents of collapsed roofs involving mannequin 12 months 1999-2016 Tremendous Responsibility vehicles.

The company declined to touch upon its earlier selections across the roof-crush necessities. NHTSA stated, underneath the Biden administration, it has secured further sources to work by means of a backlog of proposed auto-safety guidelines extra expeditiously.

The plaintiffs’ attorneys have argued that Ford was in a position to adjust to the laws as a result of producers fought to maintain minimal necessities from making use of to heavy-duty vehicles. The attorneys additionally alleged that regardless of this, Ford knew its roofs have been harmful and waited years to modify to a stronger roof design that it had developed internally in 2004.

Ford has contended within the case that the roof design within reason secure and never faulty in any method.

Initially, NHTSA had proposed in 1989 to increase the roof-strength laws that have been on passenger vehicles to a wider vary of fashions and physique types to enhance security in rollover crashes by requiring auto producers to design roofs in a position to face up to the strain of one-and-a-half instances the load of the automobile. The preliminary proposal was to use the brand new requirements to autos with a gross weight of as much as 10,000 kilos. The gross weight contains the automobile plus estimated weight for passengers and cargo.

The 2002 F-250 Tremendous Responsibility weighs about 8,800 kilos.

On the time, Ford and crosstown rival

Normal Motors Co.

advocated for a decrease weight threshold—8,500 kilos—which was beneath that of many heavy-duty vehicles available on the market, in response to regulatory filings.

Ford stated it supported the harder necessities for its lighter autos, together with vehicles and vans, saying these fashions already met or exceeded the proposed roof-safety laws, in response to a 1989 letter submitted to NHTSA as a part of the rule-making course of.

The auto maker argued that for heavier vans and vehicles—these with a gross weight of over 8,500 kilos—there was inadequate proof to find out that the stiffer necessities would improve the security of those autos. Ford stated within the letter it didn’t trust that it may persistently meet the proposed requirements with no redesign of current heavy-duty vehicles.

GM additionally backed the proposed necessities for decrease gross-weight autos; it disagreed with NHTSA’s evaluation of the security want for making use of it to the heavier pickup vehicles, in response to NHTSA’s public filings. GM argued that correct seat belts and restraints have been the simplest option to mitigate accidents in rollover accidents, the filings present.

Ford and GM declined to touch upon the businesses’ actions on the time of the rule-making course of.

Different commerce teams representing automobile producers pressed for a fair decrease threshold, and in the end NHTSA set the restrict at 6,000 kilos, that means any automobile with a gross weight of higher than that might successfully be exempt. NHTSA stated it wanted further time to evaluate the feasibility for making use of the rule to heavy-duty vehicles.

In 2009, dealing with strain from client advocacy teams and Congress, NHTSA revised the roof-strength guidelines and reverted to the sooner proposal, making use of the harder requirements to heavy-duty vehicles with a gross weight of as much as 10,000 kilos.

Producers needed to start phasing in stronger roofs starting in 2012 and had till 2017 to totally adjust to the up to date mandate, the company stated.

Write to Ryan Felton at [email protected] and Nora Eckert at [email protected]