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Lawsuit Filed Against Ford for Death of New Jersey Pregnant Woman

2 February 1999

Mellon, Webster & Mellon Files Multi-Million Dollar Lawsuit for Pregnant New Jersey Mother Who Died in her New Ford Explorer From Injuries Caused by an Airbag in a Low Speed Crash                    

    CAMDEN, N.J., Feb. 1 -- A multi-million dollar lawsuit was
filed today in U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey by the
Doylestown, Pa. law firm of Mellon, Webster & Mellon, on behalf of Eric V.
Thomas, DMD, the estate of his wife, Tracy Rose Thomas, and their minor
daughter, Alix, of Cape May Court House, NJ.  According to public records
maintained by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the
Thomas case is the first lawsuit in the Greater Philadelphia area dealing with
a fatality solely due to a defective airbag.
    (Photo:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/19990201/PHM025
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/19990201/PHM025-b
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/19990201/PHM025-c
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/19990201/PHM025-d
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/19990201/PHM025-e )
    Tracy Thomas died on February 9, 1997 at the age of 36, after the driver's
side airbag in her 1996 Ford Explorer deployed in a very minor low speed
collision.  Tracy Thomas was six months pregnant with their second child.  The
federal lawsuit was filed against Ford Motor Company (the manufacturer of the
vehicle), Breed Technologies, Inc. (the manufacturer of the vehicle's crash
sensors), and TRW, Inc. (the manufacturer of the vehicle's airbag modules).
    "The police investigation into this matter has revealed Tracy was driving
her 1996 Ford Explorer with her husband in the passenger seat and their
16-month old daughter, Alix, strapped into her car seat in the back,"
according to Mellon, Webster & Mellon attorney, Thomas E. Mellon, Jr.  "Dr.
and Mrs. Thomas, who were both wearing their seat belts, were taking their
sick daughter to the hospital in the early morning hours of February 9.
Dr. Thomas remembers Tracy saying she saw a deer ahead on the straight-away of
Hand Avenue in Cape May Court House.  When Tracy turned the wheel and veered
off the road, her vehicle hit a wooden telephone pole.  About an hour went by
before a passing car saw the accident and stopped to render assistance.  At
that point, Tracy had no pulse, her husband was unconscious and the baby was
screaming in the back seat."
    "Although preliminary tests made public by the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimated the Ford Explorer's speed at the time
of impact at 15 m.p.h., we believe Tracy was actually traveling at a much
lower speed," added Mellon, Webster & Mellon co-counsel Elliot Kolodny.
    In their complaint, among other allegations, Mellon and Kolodny contend
that:
    --  the 1996 Ford Explorer was not equipped with adequate warnings about
        airbag dangers;
    --  the airbag had a design defect and should never have deployed with
        the vehicle traveling at such a low speed;
    --  the airbag deployed with too much force;
    --  Ford Motor Company neglected to test how the deployment of its 1996
        Ford Explorer airbag would affect a smaller person or a pregnant
        woman.  It only tested the airbag on crash test dummies representing
        the 50th percentile male population (in terms of size and weight);
    --  the 1996 Ford Explorer had too few crash sensors, and the existing
        sensors were of poor quality;
    --  the 1996 Ford Explorer lacked seat belt pretensioners;
    --  there was no seat belt-in-use sensors integrated into the airbag
        system; and
    --  the driver's seat should not be designed to allow the driver to get
        close enough to the air bag that its deployment could be fatal.

    "This should have been a minor accident," says Kolodny.  "Not only was
this vehicle traveling at a low speed, but the damage to the car was minimal.
We will prove that the defective design and manufacture of the 1996 Ford
Explorer and its airbag components caused Tracy's death, and that such a
tragedy could have been prevented by the defendants."
    "Tracy's death was a needless tragedy.  Technology has long existed that
would have prevented death and serious injury from airbags in low speed
collisions," according to Byron Bloch, a noted national expert in the
automobile safety technology.  "In fact, Ford itself has employed some of this
technology in its European cars.  As early as 1973, GM had developed a 2 stage
airbag system that deploys the airbag more softly in low speed collisions such
as this."
    "My daughter, Alix, has lost her mother.  I have lost my wife,"  said
Dr. Thomas.  "Nothing will ever bring her back.  We hope that this lawsuit
will educate the public on the needless dangers airbags pose.  Hopefully, Ford
and the other care makers will take steps to make sure this never happens
again."
    For more information about this case or the current concerns regarding the
dangers of airbag deployment at low speeds, contact Thomas E. Mellon, Jr. or
Elliot Kolodny at 215-348-7700.