Woman Trapped With Husband’s Body Wins $1 Million

A woman who was trapped in a wrecked car with the body of her husband after a tire blowout was awarded more than $1 million in damages Friday by a jury that decided, however, not to assess punitive damages against the defendants.

The award to Iren Turok included $7,300 for personal physical injuries she suffered in the 1980 crash in San Bernardino County and $1 million for emotional distress suffered as a witness to her husband’s death.

The woman, a native of Hungary who was interned at Auschwitz by the Nazis in World War II, will also share with her two children $350,000 awarded for the wrongful death of her husband, Laszlo Turok.

The verdict, after more than three weeks of testimony in Los Angeles Superior Court, was against Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. and Winston Tire Co. Punitive damages had been sought only against Firestone, manufacturer of the Winston GR-70 series radial tubeless tire.

Erwin Sobel, one of the attorneys representing the family, said Friday that some jurors apparently “felt we didn’t prove gross negligence and some felt that Firestone didn’t have the evil intent, malice, to cause injury.”

Sobel said a similar Firestone-made tire (the 721 series) in use today carries a warning that under-inflation can cause serious bodily injury. He said he thought that jurors also took into consideration that “by 1984 they had put a warning on it.”

The Times was unable to contact attorneys for the tire companies Friday.

The 1980 lawsuit alleged that the tire that blew out did not meet safety standards of the industry and was likely to fail the safety standards of comparable tires and likely to cause serious injury.

After the crash Mrs. Turok was trapped in the wreckage with her husband’s body about 20 minutes until help arrived, Sobel said.