DaimlerChrysler Denounces New York Air Bag Verdict
7 December 1998
DaimlerChrysler Denounces New York Air Bag Verdict
AUBURN HILLS, Mich., Dec. 4 -- DaimlerChrysler
denounced a New York jury's decision to hit the company with $750,000 in
damages stemming from the death of a 5-year-old boy who was killed when an air
bag deployed in a 1995 Dodge Caravan during a head-on collision.
This was the first ever child-death air bag lawsuit to be tried.
"This was a tragic accident involving the senseless death of a young
child, and the sad truth is that child would be alive today if his father made
sure that he was wearing his seat belt," said DaimlerChrysler Associate
General Counsel Ken Gluckman.
"It is unfortunate that the jury appears to have let their emotions cloud
their judgment," said Gluckman. "The jury's decision runs afoul of the
engineering judgment of experts in all automotive companies as well as the
United States government. Their message today is not just about one vehicle
-- it is that the air bags in virtually every manufacturer's vehicles are
defective and that is absurd."
On August 17, 1995, while vacationing in Puerto Rico, Jose Liz, the
natural father of Michael Crespo, drove his rented minivan the wrong way down
a dangerously steep and narrow private drive. According to police, Mr. Liz
"invaded the lane" of an oncoming car and struck the other vehicle head on.
At the time of the accident, Michael was riding without his seat belt in
the front passenger seat of the minivan. Medical experts testified that if
the child's seat belt had been fastened, it is unlikely that the child would
have suffered serious injury. In addition, Mr. Liz testified that he was not
wearing a seat belt and neither were the two other children, ages 11 and 16
years.
When the vehicles collided head-on, the minivan's air bags deployed as
designed. Because Michael was not wearing a seat belt, the steep incline of
the hill combined with the force of the accident caused him to be thrust
forward dangerously close to the deploying air bag.
Based on the judge's instructions, it appears that the basis of the
verdict is that the air bag was defective because it was designed to deploy at
speeds between 8 and 14 mph. The evidence at trial showed that the accident
occurred between 9 and 12 mph.
"Undisputed evidence showed that virtually every air bag is designed to
deploy at these same speeds," said DaimlerChrysler's Gluckman. "The National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration investigated the identical defect
allegation in 1997 and determined that there was no basis for finding that the
deployment speed was defective. So the jury here has decided, contrary to the
decisions of virtually every auto manufacturer and the very government body
charged with overseeing automotive safety, that every air bag in the United
States is defective."
In addition to defective design, plaintiffs also alleged in their
complaint that Chrysler did not provide adequate warnings about air bags.
However, in an important victory for DaimlerChrysler, United States
District Judge Jed S. Rakoff dismissed the plaintiffs' warnings claim agreeing
with Chrysler's argument that it cannot be held liable for following,
verbatim, the language mandated by the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration (NHTSA), and for specifically placing the warning only on the
sun visor as also mandated by NHTSA.
Specifically, Judge Rakoff held, "The evidence is that NHTSA had available
to it more information about the dangers than Chrysler had and obviously was
in a better less-interested position to make a determination of what the
public safety required...I am starting with common sense. How can a
manufacturer be liable for following the required rules of law?"
The three-week trial began in United States District Court, Southern
District of New York on November 10, 1998.
DaimlerChrysler will ask Judge Rakoff to set aside this verdict in
post-trial motions.