The victim, a 38-year-old musician, was a passenger in a Ford Econoline E-350 van that hit a patch of black ice, slid into a ditch and rolled over two and a half times.
He struck his head on the roof and was rendered a quadriplegic.
He sued Ford Motor Co. for products liability.
Plaintiff alleged that the roof was inadequate and that a defective seat-latching mechanism caused his seat to unlatch inadvertently, which caused him to hit his head on the deforming roof during the rollover.
The plaintiff sustained a C5 burst fracture, resulting in quadriplegia and will require an intermittent catheter to avoid urinary tract infections and 24-hour care by a licensed vocational nurse.
The jury found that the van was defective and that Ford was 100 percent responsible for Plaintiff’s injuries. (United States District Court, Northern District, San Francisco, CA-May 27, 2009).