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The Pinto, a subcompact car made by Ford Motor Company, became infamous in the 1970s for bursting into flames if its gas tank was ruptured in a collision. The lawsuits brought by injured people and their survivors uncovered how the company rushed the Pinto through production and onto the market.
Ford Motor Company became the first American corporation to be criminally prosecuted when it was charged with reckless homicide. Three girls died in a fire after their Ford Pinto was struck in the rear and burst into flames; their families claimed that the fire was attributable to the Pinto's faulty fuel tank design.
In the 1970s, a landmark case involving the Ford Pinto sent shockwaves through the automotive industry and forever changed the legal landscape for personal injury law. The defective fuel tank design of the Ford Pinto resulted in tragic accidents, numerous injuries, and loss of lives.
Grimshaw v. Ford Motor Company (119 Cal.App.3d 757, 174 Cal.Rptr. 348) was a personal injury tort case decided in Orange County, California in February 1978 and affirmed by a California appellate court in May 1981. The lawsuit involved the safety of the design of the Ford Pinto automobile, manufactured by the Ford Motor Company.
Take the case of the Ford Pinto, the much-maligned subcompact produced by the American manufacturer to compete with the growing foreign car imports in the late 1960s and into the 1970s.
Lilly Gray, the driver of the Pinto, suffered fatal burns and 13-year-old Richard Grimshaw, a passenger in the Pinto, suffered severe and permanently disfiguring burns on his face and entire body. Grimshaw and the heirs of Mrs. Gray (Grays) sued Ford Motor Company and others.
Ford produced the Pinto automobile from 1971 to 1980. Initially the car sold well, but a defect in early models made Pintos prone to leaking fuel and catching on fire after relatively low-speed, rear-end collisions. The Pinto's gasoline tank was located behind the rear axle.
Critics argue that before the Pinto was released to the public in 1970, Ford knew it was a potentially murderous and tacky–looking compact.
In an influential 1977 article in Mother Jones magazine, journalist Mak Dowie accused Ford Motor Company executives of callously deciding to produce and continuing to market the Pinto (which he...
The Ford Pinto Case and the Development of Auto Safety Regulations, 1893—1978 Matthew T. Lee* Department of Sociology and CriminalJustice University of Delaware In an influential 1977 article in Mother Jones magazine, journalist Mark Dowie accused Ford Motor Company executives of callously deciding to