Jury begins deliberations in crash trial
Emotions high as attorneys close with opposing seat-belt scenarios

Published: Sunday, August 6, 2006 - 6:00 am

By Julie Howle
STAFF WRITER
jhowle@greenvillenews.com

A six-man, six-woman jury deliberated for three hours Saturday night in the case against Ford Motor Co. over a 1999 wreck that killed one woman and left another a quadriplegic.

Jurors finished at 9:30 p.m., and are scheduled to resume at 9 a.m. today. Earlier Saturday, they heard four hours of closing arguments from five attorneys in the case against Ford, TRW Vehicle Safety Systems Inc. and D&D Motors Inc.

Sonya Watson, who was 17 at the time of the wreck, was driving the 1995 Ford Explorer when it accelerated and "took off" on Interstate 385 in Laurens County, the plaintiff's attorney said.

"You have to imagine the sheer terror going through her mind because she can't stop it," attorney Wally Fayssoux told jurors in closing arguments. He said everyone in the vehicle, except for an 8-year-old girl who was asleep in the back cargo area, was wearing seat belts, called RCF-67.

Ford found out they could save money if they went back to the RCF-67 buckle, Fayssoux said, describing it as a "cost-reduction opportunity" for the company.

"It was an opportunity that killed Patricia Carter and crippled Sonya Watson," Fayssoux said.

Alan Thomas, an attorney for Ford, countered in closing arguments that there was no credible physical evidence Carter or Watson were wearing seat belts.

Elbert Dorn, another attorney for Ford, said the National Highway Traffic Safety Association, a federal agency, rejects electromagnetic interference, which the plantiffs said affected the Explorer's cruise control, as a cause of sudden acceleration.

Dorn told the jurors the case is to be determined on facts and the law, not on emotions and sympathy. He said it hasn't been proved that inertial unlatching -- when a seat belt unlatches suddenly when force hits the back of a buckle -- happened in this rollover case and that the force and direction for the phenomenon weren't there.

Adam Fox, an attorney for TRW, said there is no evidence of seat-belt use in the case and no defect in the seat belt. It is the most widely used, time-tested buckle in history and is still being produced today, Fox said.

Fox told the jurors they have to rely on physical evidence because of conflicting and inconsistent testimony.

With a clenched jaw, Fayssoux fought back tears as he told jurors it was hard to articulate the damage that was caused by this wreck. Attorneys have asked for more than $9 million.

Watson and her mother left the courtroom in tears as Fayssoux described the wreck and Watson's fight for her life. Tears also welled up in the eyes of some jurors.

"Ford Motor Co. and TRW will never learn from their mistakes unless you make them," Fayssoux told the jurors.

Thomas, the Ford attorney, said if the passengers had been so adamant that everyone wear seat belts, they would have made sure the 8-year-old in the cargo area was belted in the available back seat.

Dorn, also an attorney for Ford, said Watson didn't hit the on-off button for the cruise control like you would expect when a vehicle suddenly accelerates. Instead, he said, she reached down to grab the gas pedal as if she knew it was physically stuck, ran off the road, overcorrected and started swerving.