Jury’s Verdict Rules Against Ford
A federal jury in Tulsa returned a $15 million verdict against Ford Motor Co. on Monday in a product-liability lawsuit brought by the parents of a teenager who died in a crash of a 1995 Ford Explorer Sport.
Tulsa jeweler Kevin Moody and Veronica Moody filed the lawsuit Nov. 18, 2003, a little more than 10 months after their son, Tyler Moody, 18, was killed Jan. 7, 2003, in a single-vehicle rollover crash on Delaware Avenue near 121st Street.
Moody lost control of the sport utility vehicle while he was passing another vehicle in a no-passing zone on a curve, according to a Nov. 14 order by U.S. Chief District Judge Claire Eagan.
The SUV left the road and rolled at least 1 1/2 times, coming to rest on its roof, Eagan wrote.
In their lawsuit, the Moodys alleged that “because the defective vehicle had an inadequate roof-crush tolerance,” Tyler Moody was trapped within the Explorer “and his neck was pushed into his chest by the intruding roof at a precipitous angle.”
Testimony showed that Moody was wearing his seat belt and sustained no physical injury beyond a 5 inch contusion on the top of his head.
However, his airway was impeded to such an extent that he died of “positional asphyxiation,” according to the lawsuit.
Plaintiffs’ attorney Clark Brewster told the jury Monday that the roof of the Explorer collapsed when the vehicle went through what he termed a relatively slow, easy roll.
Brewster described the part that gave way during the wreck as being made of “spindly little pieces of metal engineered down to an unacceptable level to save money.”
But Ford attorney Mary Quinn Cooper said the vehicle exceeded federal standards. She said 98 percent of seat-belted SUV riders who are in rollover accidents sustain no serious injuries.
Cooper said Moody would have been fine — just as his passenger in the wreck was — if he had been removed from his seat belt sooner.
She said there was no doubt that Moody was by all accounts “a great kid,” but on the day of the accident he made “bad decisions that had fatal consequences,” she said.
The plaintiffs’ accident reconstruction expert testified that Moody was traveling at approximately 67 mph through the curve, according to Eagan’s Nov. 14 order.
The judge wrote that the posted speed limit on the road was 50 mph but that as vehicles entered the curve, another sign advised drivers of the curve and stated “30 mph.”
Cooper told jurors that Moody was traveling 37 mph over the speed limit, but Brewster said the 30 mph on the sign warning of the curve was only a recommended speed, making the actual speed limit 50 mph.
In any event, Brewster said, Moody’s speed was irrelevant to the issue of whether the roof on the SUV was defective or unreasonably dangerous.
Brewster had claimed in his Nov. 9 opening statement that what happened to Moody was “foreseeable and preventable” and that Ford engineered the 1995 Ford Explorer’s roof “very calculatedly to save money.”
The jury deliberated for about three hours Monday before delivering its verdict of actual or compensatory damages of $15 million.
However, the panel did not find that Ford recklessly disregarded its duty to the public’s safety. Such a finding would have prompted a second stage of the trial involving punitive damages.
Kevin and Veronica Moody would not comment.
Tyler Moody was a senior at Jenks High School, where he excelled in both athletics and academics.
He was a National Merit Scholar finalist, a Distinguished Graduate and an Advanced Placement Scholar with Distinction.
He also was the French Club president, a Jenks Chemistry Olympiad representative, an Adventure Club leader and a letterman in both cross-country and track.
Besides his achievements in school, Moody was an American Red Cross Local Hero award recipient. He received that honor and the Boy Scouts of America’s highest award for lifesaving for a late-night rescue of a rock climber in 1998, when Moody was 14. He later became an Eagle Scout.
Moody had planned to attend Stanford University.