"Crashworthiness" is basically the idea that a car should be designed to protect people in low speed and moderate crashes

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Bad Senate Bill

Here is the bad senate bill ford is pushing that will shield it in cases involving defective products.

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D'Amario Case

Here is a copy of D'Amario Case, which is existing Florida Law.

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FJA Position paper

Here is a position paper on the issues by the Florida Justice Association

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House Compromise Bill

Here is the house compromise language which overturns D'Amario, but still gives consumers a fighting chance with the Jury.

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Alyssa's Story

This is a short video about four year old Alyssa Parrino and her experience with crashworthiness. It explains succinctly what crashworthiness is all about and why having strong crashworthiness laws are important for children like Alyssa.

If the proposed SB142 passes, children like Alyssa will be forced to resort to Medicaid for care and treatment. Alyssa's story is indicative of what many families have to go through and by watering down craswhorthiness laws, cars will be less safe.

The Defective Car Recall "Formula"

This is a very short clip from the movie "Fight Club." Ed Norton's character works for a major car company and describes how the car company he works for in the movie decides whether or not to recall a defective product. This seems to be based loosely on some of the real-world smoking gun documents that have been produced in actual cases. The civil justice system gives companies financial incentives to make cars safe.

real world examples...

Ford Pinto

Most people have heard about the Ford Pinto and allegations that the Pinto's fuel tank explodes when the vehicle is hit from behind by another automobile. The Ford Pinto cases helped to define the concept of crashworthiness. Cases were brought against Ford on behalf of people who were severely burned and killed, alleging that the Pinto was not "crashworthy"; that it should not burst into flames when rear-ended by another car.

According to a 1977 Mother Jones article, Ford allegedly was aware of the design flaw, refused to pay for a redesign, and decided it would be cheaper to pay off possible lawsuits for resulting deaths. According to the Wikipedia article on the Ford Pinto, "The magazine obtained a cost-benefit analysis that it said Ford had used to compare the cost of an $11 repair against the monetary value of a human life—what became known as the Ford Pinto Memo."

A partial transcript of the infamous Pinto Memo can be seen here http://www.calbaptist.edu/dskubik/pinto.htm.

A complete copy of the document can be seen here http://www.autosafety.org/uploads/phpq3mJ7F_FordMemo.pdf.
Deadly Airbag

Another example of a crashworthiness case involves the 1993 Ford Taurus. While driving her Taurus, single mother Mayling Semidey was driving up the on-ramp on her way home from work. It was raining. She was belted. She was driving around 10 miles per hour. Her car hit the guardrail resulting in a fender bender. She should have walked away.

When she hit the guardrail her airbag deployed. The blunt force trauma from the airbag was so severe that it killed her, leaving her 8 year old son behind.

Her estate brought a crashworthiness claim against Ford due to the defective design of the airbag. A jury returned a verdict against Ford, finding the airbag was defective and awarding sufficient funds for her son to be taken care of without having to resort to the State for support.

Under the proposed legislation, Ford would have tried to apportion fault to Mayling -- even though she would have walked away but-for the defective airbag.
Fuel Fed Fires

For several years, safety advocates and victims made allegations that certain GM vehicles were manufactured with defective fuel tanks that would explode in low speed and moderate crashes. As a result of crashworthiness litigation, another "smoking gun" document surfaced that is known as the "Ivey Memo."

As reported by the L.A. Times, the Ivey Memo discussed how much General Motors Corp. should spend to keep people from burning to death in fiery crashes. According to the Times, "a young GM engineer, Edward C. Ivey, suggested that the answer was: Not much. With a couple of simple calculations, Ivey estimated that these fiery deaths were costing GM only about $2 per vehicle--the implication being that it was not enough to justify the expense of changing the vehicles' design."

You can see a copy of the Ivey Memo here http://www.southerninjurylawyer.com/media/2008/07/value-analysis-of-auto... and you can read the complete L.A. Times article here http://articles.latimes.com/2001/apr/30/business/fi-57496.

More info:
http://www.calbaptist.edu/dskubik/pinto.htm
http://articles.latimes.com/2001/apr/30/business/fi-57496

Proposed...

Crash- worthiness Bill SB142

Will Not Save or Create a Single Job in Florida.

Neither Toyota nor Ford -- who are both pushing SB142 -- have a single factory in Florida. Nor are they suggesting they will bring a factory to Florida if the Bill passes. Florida jobs are not at stake with this issue.
Will Hurt Children

The real-world effect of the Bill will be to deflect liability away from foreign and out of state car makers who make defective cars, with the result that injured children will have no source to recover medical bills and care.
Will Cost Floridians Tax Dollars

If the bill passes, defective car markers will be able to get off the hook for defective products involving catastrophic injuries. In these cases, after health insurance runs out (which it does after one or two million dollars of catastrophic care coverage in most policies) the State has to pick up the cost of care. Floridians will pay. And it will cost millions.
Is Corporate Welfare

The analysis is simple: not jobs will be saved or created by this bill; foreign and out of state corporations who make defective products are the ONLY ones who will save money that will now then have to be paid for by Florida taxpayers. This is a corporate give-away, plain and simple.
Will Not Help a Single Floridian

The only entities or special interests that will be helped by this bill are either foreign (Toyota, Hyundai, Honda), or out of state (Ford). Not one single Floridian will benefit from this bill.