- Ford Motor Co f urged a Georgia court to start a new trial after a jury returned a $1.7 billion verdict against the automaker over a truck rollover accident that killed two people came to life.
- Ford claimed unfair disqualification from providing evidence showing the truck in question was safe, with a more robust roof construction than many of its competitors, the WSJ reports.
- Ford reportedly argued that in 2018 a state judge effectively barred Ford from defending against plaintiffs’ claims that the truck’s roof design was defective.
- Ford was also unable to adequately demonstrate in court other factors that may have contributed to the deaths, including his claim that the occupants did not wear their seat belts properly.
- Ford filed two motions in Gwinnett County state court in Georgia, the report added. One called for a new trial, the other challenged the punitive damages awarded to the company in August.
- The industry’s top safety agency, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, shows no investigative actions or safety recalls related to roof-collapse incidents involving Ford heavy-duty pickups from 1999 to 2016.
- Melvin and Voncile Hill lost their lives in April 2014 roll wreck of her 2002 Ford F-250. Her children, Kim and Adam Hill, were the plaintiffs in the wrongful death.
- A jury in Gwinnett County, northeast of Atlanta, returned verdict in the year-long civil trial citing dangerously defective Ford pickup truck roofs.
- Ford is working on new smartphone-based communications technology to warn drivers of pedestrians, cyclists and people approaching a vehicle’s path but blocked from the driver’s view.
- Related: Ford Tries New Crash Risk Alert – Read How This Smartphone-Based Technology Could Help
- When the vehicle calculates a potential risk of an accident, Ford SYNC can alert drivers through the in-vehicle screen, which displays graphics of pedestrians, cyclists or more with audible alerts.
- Apple…
Read full story here https://www.benzinga.com/news/22/09/29025861/ford-pitches-for-fresh-trial-after-1-7b-jury-verdict-in-truck-rollover-mishap
