Yahoo Autos Families Sue Ford, Test Track After 2 Boys Hurt in Field Trip Crash
The families of two children who were grievously injured in a crash at a test track facility in Michigan last year have officially filed a number of lawsuits in the matter, targeting both the track organizers and several other parties, including the Ford Motor Company, for their involvement in the incident.
According to CBS News Detroit, the crash took place on July 17, 2023, during a group trip to an Auburn Hills test track that included a vehicle demonstration. The families argue that the driver of a Ford Mustang Dark Horse purposely made the car break traction in an effort to make the demonstration more exciting, but that during the second attempt at a pass in front of the children, things went wrong. According to the lawsuit, the driver “rapidly accelerated the car in a negligent and/or reckless manner and lost control, plowing into the guardrail and violently striking the children watching the track from behind it.”
Cell phone footage captured at the scene shows the muscle car smashing into a safety barrier located directly in front of the kids, before striking and injuring the two plaintiffs, who were aged eight and 10 at the time.
Lawyers representing the families have filed lawsuits against Continental Automotive Systems Inc., the owner of the test track as well as the Detroit Area Pre-College Engineering Program, which ran the summer camp during which the incident took place. The Ford Motor Company, the owner of the Mustang, has also been targeted with a lawsuit; so has the driver of the vehicle, Linus Gugino.
"It was absolutely hands down, the worst moment of my life," Vincent Gibson, the father of one of the injured children, told CBS. Gibson, who was on site with his child during the field trip, says his son suffered a traumatic brain injury as a result of the crash, as well as several fractures to his skull and legs. The other plaintiff also suffered from a severe head injury. The lawsuit states both boys suffer from memory and other cognitive issues after the accident.
"The predictable happened,” Jonathan Marko, the attorney representing both families in the lawsuits, told CBS. “When you take a high-speed, prototype race car, and you race it right next to little kids. And you have your driver lose control on purpose, to make it exciting. Something bad is going to happen. And the worst imaginable nightmare for these families and these children happened.”
Marko further explained that the children were simply too close to the course itself during the demonstration, pointing to the world of professional motorsports as an example of more rigorous safety measures at track events.
"They won't even let you do this at NASCAR,” said Marko. “I go to a NASCAR show, or we go to the Grand Prix at downtown Detroit, they've got fences up. They won't even let me as an adult come anywhere near close."
The lawsuit filed in the Oakland County Circuit Court alleges negligence and willful and wanton misconduct on the part of the defendants, among other accusations.
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