Ford_News
09-03-2010, 08:40 AM
Filed under: SUV (http://www.autoblog.com/category/suvs/), Government/Legal (http://www.autoblog.com/category/government-legal/), Safety (http://www.autoblog.com/category/safety/), Ford (http://www.autoblog.com/category/ford/)
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2010/09/2001-ford-explorer-gravel-road.jpg (http://autos.aol.com/article/Ford-Brian-Cole-Rollover/)
Ford's second-generation Explorer (http://www.autoblog.com/tag/explorer) has just cost the company $131 million. Despite the popularity of the seminal SUV, it's had more than its fair share of legal scrapes regarding its rollover resistance. And while the Explorer/Firestone tire kerfuffle has long since exited the headlines, the Blue Oval continues to get its pocketbook dinged by the SUV. According to Autoblog sister site AOL Autos, this week, a jury in Jackson, Mississippi was to decide on possible punitive damages in the lawsuit over the death of Brian Cole, a promising baseball player headed for the New York Mets. Ford settled with the family over the matter of the 2001 rollover accident after a jury awarded $131 million in damages. Punitive damages were the next decision the jury was to consider before Ford settled.
Ford (http://www.autoblog.com/make/ford/) apparently disagrees with the blame placed on its vehicle, saying that the 22-year-old Cole was speeding and not wearing a seatbelt. Cole died from injuries sustained after being ejected from his Explorer during a rollover accident on a Florida highway. His cousin, Ryan Cole, survived the accident, which Ford attributes to the use of a seatbelt and the Explorer's crash performance. While a settlement can be taken as a de facto acknowledgement of the Cole family's claims that the Explorer is inherently unstable and its safety belts can fail in rollovers, the automaker maintains that it didn't receive a fair trial, and settled to bring closure to the issue.
[Source: AOL Autos (http://autos.aol.com/article/Ford-Brian-Cole-Rollover/)]Ford settles $131m Explorer rollover case (http://www.autoblog.com/2010/09/03/ford-settles-131m-rollover-case/) originally appeared on Autoblog (http://www.autoblog.com) on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 10:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds (http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/).
Read (http://autos.aol.com/article/Ford-Brian-Cole-Rollover/) | Permalink (http://www.autoblog.com/2010/09/03/ford-settles-131m-rollover-case/) | Email this (http://www.autoblog.com/forward/19619611/) | Comments (http://www.autoblog.com/2010/09/03/ford-settles-131m-rollover-case/#comments)
More... (http://www.autoblog.com/2010/09/03/ford-settles-131m-rollover-case/)
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2010/09/2001-ford-explorer-gravel-road.jpg (http://autos.aol.com/article/Ford-Brian-Cole-Rollover/)
Ford's second-generation Explorer (http://www.autoblog.com/tag/explorer) has just cost the company $131 million. Despite the popularity of the seminal SUV, it's had more than its fair share of legal scrapes regarding its rollover resistance. And while the Explorer/Firestone tire kerfuffle has long since exited the headlines, the Blue Oval continues to get its pocketbook dinged by the SUV. According to Autoblog sister site AOL Autos, this week, a jury in Jackson, Mississippi was to decide on possible punitive damages in the lawsuit over the death of Brian Cole, a promising baseball player headed for the New York Mets. Ford settled with the family over the matter of the 2001 rollover accident after a jury awarded $131 million in damages. Punitive damages were the next decision the jury was to consider before Ford settled.
Ford (http://www.autoblog.com/make/ford/) apparently disagrees with the blame placed on its vehicle, saying that the 22-year-old Cole was speeding and not wearing a seatbelt. Cole died from injuries sustained after being ejected from his Explorer during a rollover accident on a Florida highway. His cousin, Ryan Cole, survived the accident, which Ford attributes to the use of a seatbelt and the Explorer's crash performance. While a settlement can be taken as a de facto acknowledgement of the Cole family's claims that the Explorer is inherently unstable and its safety belts can fail in rollovers, the automaker maintains that it didn't receive a fair trial, and settled to bring closure to the issue.
[Source: AOL Autos (http://autos.aol.com/article/Ford-Brian-Cole-Rollover/)]Ford settles $131m Explorer rollover case (http://www.autoblog.com/2010/09/03/ford-settles-131m-rollover-case/) originally appeared on Autoblog (http://www.autoblog.com) on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 10:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds (http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/).
Read (http://autos.aol.com/article/Ford-Brian-Cole-Rollover/) | Permalink (http://www.autoblog.com/2010/09/03/ford-settles-131m-rollover-case/) | Email this (http://www.autoblog.com/forward/19619611/) | Comments (http://www.autoblog.com/2010/09/03/ford-settles-131m-rollover-case/#comments)
More... (http://www.autoblog.com/2010/09/03/ford-settles-131m-rollover-case/)