In a recent court case in Florida, a jury awarded $61m to the parents of a Lance Crossman Hall, a 17-year-old who died as a passenger in a Ford Explorer. The driver fell asleep before the accident.
In the case for the prosecution, some of the witnesses were Ford engineers, who said that yes, they have known for 15 years that the Ford Explorer is prone to roll over, and to prevent this, the car would have to be lowered and widened, for better stability.
To me, it is a farce. The Ford Explorer is an off-road vehicle. It is narrow, and stands tall on its feet, so it can maneuver through different terrain. That also explains its bigger tyres, its 4WD drive system, and the powerful engines. The Explorer was never designed to be driven on motorways, freeways or highways. The first problem, then, would be that the driver picked the wrong tool for the job - a terrain vehicle for motorway cruising.
In addition, there are many indications that show that a Ford Explorer actually isn’t natively an unstable vehicle - even emergency turning, evasive action and strong braking can be done safely, as long as the vehicle is in the hands of an experienced driver. Sure, it is a hopelessly sloppy drive, and handles badly at high speed, but no worse than many other cars in that class. You wouldn’t expect a Ferrari Enzo to be able to take you, off-road, to the top of a mountain in the Scottish highlands either, would you?
None of the articles mention how old Melahn Parker, the driver of the vehicle, was at the time of the accident, but Parker and Hall are constantly described as ‘friends’, and it is implied they went to school together. If we for the sake of argument assume they are of similar age, then another question appears: What in the world is a young, inexperienced driver doing with a massive, hulking 4×4 vehicle? A vehicle that even the least tactile driver can understand is going to be difficult to control, unintuitive to drive (due to its high point of gravity), and all-but-ideal for motorway driving?
To me, this whole case highlights a series of things that are wrong with US culture. When people falling asleep at the wheel are actually awarded damages for faults with the car (like what? Seats that are so comfortable that you fall asleep in them?), there is something seriously wrong. The lack of taking responsibility for one’s actions, the rampantly outrageous litigation culture, the too-young and too-inexperienced drivers driving the cars that aren’t suitable for the environments they are used in.
To top all of this off, it turns out that the driver of the truck fell asleep. The actual accident happened when she jolted awake, made a rash correction with the steering wheel, upon which the car started to veer, and eventually toppled over.
So in summary, the jury awarded $61m to the parents of the kid who died after Parker fell asleep in a 4×4 SUV that the driver was unable to handle. Of those $61m, 98% was awarded ‘for pain and suffering’. What the hell? Surely, every parent who loses a child goes through pain and suffering, but traffic deaths are the #1 cause for young people dying in the western world today. In 2000, 6,390 kids aged 15 to 20 died in American road traffic accidents. Did the parents of every one of those youth get a sixty million dollar payout?
I didn’t think so.