April 20, 2005
An Illinois jury has awarded $43 million to the severely-injured widow of a man killed in a fiery crash two years ago for which the plaintiff's attorneys say Ford Motor Co. was primarily to blame.
Dora Jablonski's husband, John Jablonski, was killed after a car driven by Natalie Ingram, then a 21-year-old college student, slammed into the rear of Jablonski's Lincoln Town Car, which had stopped for construction on Interstate 270, near the Illinois 203 exit, in downstate Illinois.
Jablonski's attorney, Brad Lakin, argued that Ford ignored warnings from its own engineers that designing the 1993 Lincoln Town Car with a vertical fuel tank behind the rear axle was unsafe. Later, the company chose not to spend $9.95 per car to relocate the fuel tank to a safer location.
In his closing statement, Lakin asked the jury to award Jablonski and her family $32 million for medical expenses, pain and suffering, and other expenses but left it up to them to decide on punitive damages. The jury decided on $15 million in punitive damages after deliberating for less than six hours.
Dora Jablonski testified for nearly 90 minutes from her wheelchair. Jurors learned that she was burned over 32 percent of her body and came away with deformities to her ears, nose, head, face, hands, arms, shoulders, and legs.
Lakin said that Ford had known about the potential of safety problems with its design for 40 years but that "no Ford employees were ready to accept responsibility."
Ford's attorney, Jim Feeney, said the Town Car met the highest crash standards in the industry. Accidents and fires occur in all cars, he argued, and the risk of fire in such a crash is extremely rare.
Feeney argued that the company followed federal safety guidelines by acting reasonably and by offering a car that met the criteria of being reasonably safe.
Though not identical, the Town Car is similar to the Ford Crown Victoria police cars which have been the target of lawsuits throughout the nation. Police contend the cars tend to explode into flames when hit from behind.
