Yahoo Autos Ford Ordered To Pay $7 Million For Mustang Crash
⚡️ Read the full article on Motorious
That’s a lot of money…
Back in 2016, 19-year-old Breanna Bumgarner was driving her 2014 Ford Mustang down U.S. Route 33 near Spencer, West Virginia when a 1989 Toyota pickup crossed the center line. In the crash, the truck hit the Ford’s A-pillar, crumpling the driver’s door so Bumgarner couldn’t escape as the pony car caught fire. She burned alive.
Check out the Motorious Podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and other podcast platforms.
A jury just found Ford to be 99% at fault for the young woman’s untimely death, holding the other driver only 1% accountable. That might seem off, but the jury took under consideration the allegation that fire was sparked by insufficient protection around the brake fluid reservoir, which ruptured and ignited the blaze.
Even worse, the attorneys representing Bumgarner’s mother argued the steel used in the Mustang’s safety cage was made of the same type used in the front and rear crumple zones. In other words, it deformed easily, trapping the 19-year-old inside because it lacked sufficient strength.
Those attorneys pointed to crash test results from 2011 which highlighted these two safety concerns with the Mustang. Yet Ford made no changes to the vehicle structure or materials used for three years after.
