Ford Loses $18 Million on Sudden-Acceleration Claim

08-07-06 17:12 (New York)
By Margaret Cronin Fisk

Aug. 7 (Bloomberg) -- A South Carolina jury ordered Ford Motor Co., the No. 2 U.S. automaker, to pay $15 million to a woman who claimed she was injured when her 1995 Explorer accelerated on its own and crashed.
    
The woman, Sonya Watson, was left a quadriplegic after the December 1999 accident. The Greenville, South Carolina, jury
yesterday also awarded $3 million to the estate of her fatally injured aunt, Patricia Carter, 48.
    
Watson, 23, and the Carter family said a defect in the cruise control system caused it to accelerate suddenly. The verdict was the third-largest against an automaker so far in 2006, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The other two were also against Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford. The company said the Watson accident was caused by driver error.
    
``The primary cause of alleged unintended sudden acceleration events is pedal misapplication,'' said Ford spokeswoman Kathleen Vokes. Ford will appeal, she said.
    
Electromagnetic interference can trigger the sport utility vehicle's cruise control system to push down the throttle, even
when the mechanism is shut off, said Watson's attorney Ed Bell.
    
``In spite of thousands of complaints by consumers, Ford continues to tell customers and the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration this isn't happening,'' Bell said. ``There have been 5,000 complaints on the Explorer alone.''

                         Unable to Stop

Watson, then 17, was driving her family's Explorer on Interstate 385 in South Carolina when it ``took off'' and she was
unable to stop the vehicle by pumping the brakes, Bell said. The Explorer rolled over, and both Watson and Carter were ejected
from the SUV.

Watson and Carter were wearing their seat belts, their attorneys said. They claimed the Explorer seat belt was defective and failed to restrain them in the rollover. Ford and co- defendant TRW Automotive Holdings Corp., maker of the seat belt, said the plaintiffs weren't wearing their belts. The jury found no defects in the belts.
    
``We're pleased the jurors made the finding they did,'' said TRW spokesman Manley Ford. The plaintiffs said the belts had inadvertently unlatched during the rollover, he said. ``The jury quite correctly found that was pretty unlikely,'' Ford said.
    
Ford shares rose 4 cents to $7.17 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Shares of Livonia, Michigan-based TRW rose 1
cent to $27.87 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.
    
The lawsuit is Watson v. Ford Motor Co., No., 2002-CP-23- 8147, Court of Common Pleas, Greenville County, South Carolina.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Margaret Cronin Fisk in Southfield, Michigan,
at (1)(248) 827-2947 or mcfisk@bloomberg.net .

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Patrick Oster at (1) (212) 617-4088 or poster@bloomberg.net.