Robert M.N. Palmer and William Petrus, The Law Offices of Robert M.N. Palmer, P.C. and Ronald D. Harrison, Ledbetter, Cogbill, Arnold & Harrison, LLP, counsel for Plaintiffs and Edwin L. Lowther, Jr., Wright, Lindsey &  Jennings, LLP, counsel for Defendant Ford Motor Company and David E. Morris, counsel for Defendant Cockrum.

On March 13, 1997, at approximately 2:37 p.m., Plaintiffs’ Decedent, Heather Jordan, was the front seat passenger of a 1994 Ford Escort, operated by Gwendolyn Rose Russell, traveling eastbound on Rogers Avenue. Suzanne L. Ball was operating a 1995 Chevrolet Corsica traveling in a westerly direction in the inside lane of Rogers Avenue. Defendant Cockrum was the operator of a 1994 General Motors Corporation pickup flatbed owned by Terry Cockrum and Lisa Cockrum. The vehicles in front of Ms. Ball’s vehicle stopped and, accordingly, Ms. Ball brought her vehicle to a complete stop. Defendant Cockrum’s vehicle was traveling behind Ms. Ball’s vehicle and rear ended Ms. Ball’s vehicle shoving her vehicle into the eastbound lanes of Rogers Avenue causing Ms. Ball’s vehicle to collide with the subject vehicle being operated by Gwendolyn Russell and occupied by Decedent, Heather Jordan. The occupant restraint systems provided for front seat passengers of the 1994 Ford Escort included a motorized, passive shoulder harness and a manual lap belt for each of the two front seat occupant positions and an air bag for the driver. Decedent, Heather Jordan, was restrained by the motorized passive shoulder harness but not the manual lap belt. As a result of the impact between the subject vehicle and the vehicle operated by Ms. Ball, Decedent, Heather Jordan, made contact with the motorized, passive shoulder harness and was restrained by that shoulder harness in such a fashion as to concentrate the restraint or belt loads in the area of her chest, rupturing her aorta, resulting in fatal injuries.
 

Plaintiffs alleged that the restraint system in the 1994 Ford Escort was defective and unreasonably dangerous in that it failed to have an integrated lap belt. This particular restraint system contains a motorized shoulder belt with a separately operated manual lap belt. Plaintiffs further claimed that the Ford was defective in that it did not provide an adequate warning to Ms. Jordan of the need to wear the manual lap belt.
 

Case settled for a confidential amount on. May 16, 2000