Jury sides with Ford in fiery crash involving trooper's car on I-70

18.05.12

Ford Motor Co. does not owe damages to a Leawood man severely burned in a 2003 traffic crash, a Jackson County jury decided Monday.</p><p>The verdict came after a monthlong trial that stemmed from a crash that killed a Missouri Highway Patrol trooper and seriously injured Michael Nolte.</p><p>The trooper, Michael Newton, and Nolte were sitting in the trooper&#x92;s Crown Victoria patrol car along Interstate 70 when it was struck from behind by a truck on May 22, 2003. After the patrol car burst into flames, witnesses pulled Nolte from the wreckage.</p><p>A 2005 trial also resulted in a verdict in favor of Ford, but the Missouri Supreme Court ordered a new trial on appeal. The trooper&#x92;s family reached a confidential settlement with Ford before this trial.</p><p>Attorneys for Nolte, 57, and his wife asked this jury for more than $46 million in compensatory damages. </p><p>Jurors deliberated for about eight hours on Friday and Monday before returning the verdict. They left the courthouse without commenting to the media.</p><p>&#x93;While we are disappointed in the outcome, we still appreciate the hard work of the jury,&#x94; Grant Davis, one of the lawyers who represented the Noltes, said Monday.</p><p>Newton had pulled Nolte over to give him a warning about driving too long in the passing lane. They were sitting in the trooper&#x92;s car when a truck towing a trailer at 65 mph ran into the car. The truck driver later said he was reaching for some sunglasses when he crashed.</p><p>The collision tore the car&#x92;s fuel filler tube, and the car burst into flames. Nolte suffered severe burns, spent 65 days in a hospital burn unit and has undergone skin grafts and surgeries. He will suffer pain for the rest of his life, suffers from post-traumatic stress, has difficulty sleeping because of the pain and has considered suicide, Davis told the jury.</p><p>&#x93;While Ford&#x92;s sympathies go out to the Nolte family, we agree with the jury that Ford should not be blamed for Mr. Nolte&#x92;s injuries,&#x94; said Jim Feeney, an attorney who represented Ford. &#x93;The true cause of this accident was the distracted driver of the 13,000-pound vehicle that ran into the parked police interceptor at 65 mph.&#x94;</p><p>The jury in the first trial in 2005 came to the same conclusion.</p><p>That jury found in favor of Ford but awarded $8.5 million in damages to be paid by the truck driver&#x92;s employer. A pre-trial agreement had capped the company&#x92;s liability at $1 million covered by its insurance.</p><p>Davis declined to comment on whether Monday&#x92;s verdict would be appealed.</p><p>&#x93;Even though Ford prevailed, we hope Ford takes the opportunity to improve its product,&#x94; he said.</p><p>During closing arguments on Friday, Davis told jurors that the Crown Victoria was defectively manufactured and that Ford was well aware of its propensity to catch fire in rear-end crashes. Davis argued that Ford put &#x93;profit over safety&#x94; by continuing to produce the vehicles without addressing what he said was the &#x93;root cause&#x94; of the fire &#x97; the placement of the car&#x92;s gas tank behind the rear axle.</p><p>However, Feeney argued that no vehicle on the road could withstand being rear-ended by a truck and trailer weighing in excess of 13,000 pounds and traveling at that speed.</p><p>&#x93;The Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor was designed to the highest rear-impact standards of any vehicle in the world,&#x94; he said after Monday&#x92;s verdict. &#x93;Ford has done all that is reasonable to reduce the risk of fire in its products, but no gas-powered vehicle is fireproof in such extreme collisions.&#x94;

Source: Kansas City Star