FORD have been sued by a family after they failed to warn the public of a deadly defect in one of their most popular models
The Horn family from Pueblo, Colorado, endured a devastating tragedy when a loved one lost their life in a crash.
An attorney claims these specific Ford pickups pose a risk to drivers[/caption]
Steven Horn was driving a Ford Super Duty pickup with his family in March when wind allegedly caused the truck to roll over[/caption]
Now, according to KKTV, they claim Ford failed to warn the public about what they call a defect with Ford Super Duty pickup trucks – released from 1999 to 2016.
The report claims that Steven Horn was driving a Ford Super Duty pickup with his family in March when wind allegedly caused the truck to roll over.
While his family survived, Steven was crushed by the collapsing roof and killed.
Plaintiff Attorney Jake Berman of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, the law firm representing the Horn family, claims these specific Ford pickups pose a risk to drivers.
Berman said: “And so the family (is filing) this lawsuit to bring justice on behalf of Mr. Horn and to bring attention to this issue (for) other people driving these dangerous trucks.”
He added: “The evidence will show that Ford released Super Duty trucks, which are Fords 250 and 350 models, from the year 1999 to 2016 with a roof structure that is defective, meaning that upon a rollover collision, the roof collapses and this collapse poses an unreasonable, grave risk to the occupants in the vehicle.
“In a more safely designed truck, this risk wouldn’t be presented.
“Rollovers are foreseeable accidents.
“They’re occurrences that we all see unfortunately on the road as we drive, and drivers who experience them shouldn’t be put at risk of death each time it occurs.”
Furthermore, Berman said: “Instead of doing what was right and continuing to make changes to its patently unsafe truck, Ford has instead doubled down and they continued to sell the same defective truck up until 2016 and today still have not issued any warnings or recalls regarding their defective trucks and the grave risk of injury or death that the roofs of these trucks present.
“So at this point, it’s incumbent upon Ford to provide a remedy for the defect present in its vehicles.”
He also believes Horn’s death could’ve been prevented.
“Mr. Horn was a father. He was a husband, and he was a provider for his family.
“If Ford had warned the family of the dangerous defect and the harm it could potentially cause, the Horns would have never been in this situation.
“Mr. Horn would be with us today, and he would be the father that his kids deserve and the husband his wife deserves.
“The evidence will show that when designing the 350 that Mr Horn was killed in and crushed by, it will show that Ford down-gauged certain parts of the roof and made different selections about the materials that would be used to save money and elected to use cheaper and less expensive materials to construct the roof.
“…Ford saved a substantial amount of money by using cheaper weaker materials and down-gauging the roof structure in critical areas.
“A vehicle has to be crashworthy if it’s on the road.
“Vehicle rollovers and crashes that affect us all and the ripple effects of them affect all of us throughout our lives are foreseeable instances.
“So when a vehicle manufacturer makes the vehicle and then produces it to the market for us as citizens in America to drive, that vehicle has to be able to withstand reasonable forces of a crash and rollovers fall within what is foreseeable.”
Berman explained: “So when you see one of these trucks, just be aware of the risk that it presents to the public.
“And our lawsuit hopes to hold Ford accountable for that risk and to bring justice for the family that lost, that needlessly lost Mr. Horn due to this risk created by Ford.”
Sun Motors US has reached out to Ford for a comment.
What’s the Takata airbag recall?
The Takata airbag recall holds the record for the largest product recall in US history.
At least 67 million vehicles have been recalled in the United States since 2014, and almost 100 million were recalled globally, sending the Japanese manufacturer, Takata, into bankruptcy.
The danger involved improper deployment, which would send bits of shrapnel into the faces of drivers and their passengers. Globally, the airbags killed 35 people, with 27 of the deaths occurring in the US. Over 400 people were seriously injured after the airbags were deployed.
Several automakers participated in the recall. Honda, Toyota, Subaru, BMW, Mercedes, Stellantis, General Motors, and Mazda have all recalled vehicles to remove the airbag free of charge to customers at licensed dealerships.
Source: NHSTA
