February 5, 2005
Ford lawyers will be busy this year defending more
than two dozen civil suits attacking the safety of
the popular Explorer sport utility vehicle.
Plaintiffs in those cases, and hundreds more, are using internal Ford documents released after the Firestone tire crisis in 2000 to back claims that the Explorer is defective and that Ford balked at making crucial changes.
Attorneys suing Ford have developed a network for sharing the documents among hundreds of court cases.
The documents include a recommendation in 1993 by Ford engineers that the Explorer's roof supports be strengthened to prevent the roof from collapsing in a rollover crash.
Ford did not make the changes because the roof support met government standards.
There is also a 1999 warning by Ford engineers in Venezuela that rollover crashes in Explorers related to suspension flaws, caused nine deaths. In 1996, Ford engineers wrote that the issue could be taken care of by moving the shock absorbers closer to the wheels.
The change was not made.
Ford cites government data that shows the death rate in rollover crashes is lower for the Explorer than the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Chevrolet Blazer.
Ford lost two Explorer lawsuits last year -- one in San Diego with a $369 million judgment that was later reduced to $150 million, and one in Fort Myers, Fla., with a judgment of $5.3 million. Ford settled the Florida case for an undisclosed amount.
In its financial reports, Ford does not estimate how much all these lawsuits would specifically cost the company.
In 2001, in one of the biggest recalls in U.S. history, former Ford CEO Jacques Nasser announced that the automaker was spending $3 billion to replace all 13 million Firestone tires on Explorers at the time.
More than 270 highway deaths were reported from accidents resulting from the separation of the vehicle's tire treads.
