Issues
Years of lawsuits and complaints raise new questions about Ford Escape recall
On August 8, 2005 Marta Baier made a decision that ended her life. Her 2003 Ford Escape accelerated out of control, and, unable to stop it, she jumped out, hitting her head on the pavement. She died less than an hour later in a Missouri hospital.
Two summers later, a 43 year-old mother died outside of Philadelphia, PA when her 2004 Ford Escape accelerated out of control, flipped and hit a school bus.
Ford settled lawsuits in both of these cases without admitting liability – in one case, paying the victim’s family and their attorney more than $1 million, according to court records.
Family’s Ford Escape crashes in Texas; Ford recall questioned
Tammy Graham drove her 2001 Ford Escape for 11 years; now, it sits in the back lot of an auto shop near her home in Baytown, TX, outside of Houston.
The front bumper is crushed in, the airbags deployed and goldfish are still scattered in the back where her son sat before the SUV accelerated out of control and crashed less than two months ago.
“We had four vehicles in the garage,” she said, “all Fords.”
Graham’s husband, James, races Fords. Their 9-year-old son Hunter collects them.
“We were huge Ford fans,” she said.
A NEARLY DEADLY CRASH
Ford Explorer-Firestone Tire
Ford Explorer-Firestone Wilderness/ATX Tire Failure and Rollover
Ford Ignition Switch Fires
On April 25, 1996, Ford Motor Company announced it would conduct one of the largest recalls for a safety-related defect in the history of the U.S. Department of Transportation. The recall covered approximately 7,900,000 Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury vehicles in the U.S. from model year 1988 through 1993 for a defect in the ignition switch causing the cars to catch ablaze spontaneously (NHTSA recall number 96V-071).
Takata Seat Belt Buckle
On May 23, 1995, during “Buckle Up America Week”, DOT Secretary Federico Pena and NHTSA Administrator Dr. Ricardo Martinez announced the second largest recall in the 30 year history of the Department of Transportation (DOT), affecting 8,428,402 predominantly Japanese vehicles made between 1986-91 with seat belts manufactured by the Takata Corporation of Japan. (NHTSA Recall No.
GM Side Saddle Gas Tank Fires
The side saddle fuel tank design installed in over 10 million trucks – all 1973-87 General Motors full-size pickups and cab-chassis trucks (pickups without beds) and some 1988-91 dual cab or RV chassis – is the worst auto crash fire defect in the history of the U.S. Department of Transportation. Based on data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (formerly known as the Fatal Accident Reporting System), over 2,000 people were killed in fire crashes involving these trucks from 1973 through 2009.
CAS California Crash Parts Comments August 9, 2012
CAS California Crash Parts Comments August 9, 2012