It is pretty much forgotten now. There was a criminal case that resulted from a Pinto gas tank explosion in addition to the much more famous civil case that resulted in over $6.5 million in damages upheld on appeal in California. The civil case was discussed in a post yesterday on Claims and Bad Faith Law Blog.
The criminal case grew out of an indictment in Indiana that was issued three days after the appellate court denied rehearing in the civil case in California.
Like the California civil case, the Indiana criminal case went to a jury. The jury acquitted Ford.
Like the California trial judge, the Indiana trial judge refused to admit Ford's report and table into evidence.
The juries in California and in Indiana never saw the table which Ford itself
prepared. Ford submitted the table to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in opposition to a proposed NHTSA regulation related to rollovers. Neither the Pinto gas tank explosion in California nor the explosion in Indiana involved a rollover, but the table Ford prepared was explosive.
To say again, the trial judges in California and in Indiana refused to admit the table into evidence.
The juries did not see it.
Here is a version of Ford's table which the juries did not see. The following version was prepared by FEMA for use in a course on handling burn injuries:
Source: Slide 8 of FEMA Burn Crisis and Continuity Management Powerpoint, Class Session 17, accessible online at https://training.fema.gov/hiedu/docs/bccm/bccm%20-%20session%2017%20-%20power%20point.ppt.
"$11 Cost vs. A Burn Death
Benefits and costs relating to fuel leakage associated with the static rollover test portion of FMVSS 208
Benefits
Savings: 180 burn deaths, 180 serious burn injuries, 2,100 burned vehicles.
Unit Cost: $200,000 per death, $67,000 per injury, $700 per vehicle.
Total Benefit: 180 X ($200,000) + 180 X ($67,000) + 2,100 X ($700) = $49.5 Million.
Costs
Sales: 11 Million cars and 1.5 Million light trucks.
Unit Cost : $11 per car and $11 per light truck.
Total Cost : 12.5 Million X ($11) = $137 Million.
Ford Motor Company Internal Memorandum - 'Fatalities Associated with Crash-Induced Fuel Leakage and Fires'[.]"
It was a long time ago, now. The jury trials in Indiana and in California, that is.
There was no need for a blanket secrecy order. The juries did not see this table.
Ford was not prejudiced by this evidence. It was not admitted into evidence.
The judges refused to allow this table into evidence.
The jury system worked.
That should have actually inspired confidence in the justice system in the years since then.
But that is not the point. Not really. Blanket secrecy orders, umbrella protective orders, are really about concealing the evidence, not about the integrity of the justice system.
But maybe, in the final analysis, it is all about the integrity of the justice system. You cannot trust judges and juries to protect you from public awareness of huge problems. Besides, judges and juries are likely to do the right things in the long run -- and as they did in the exploding Pinto gas tank cases, they often do the right things in the short run as well.
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