$5.3-Million Verdict Goes Against Toyota in Truck Safety Suit

A Torrance jury Friday issued a $5.37-million verdict against Toyota Motor Corp.’s American subsidiary, saying that the design of the Japanese auto maker’s four-wheel drive Toyota SR5 pickup truck is inherently unstable.

Attorneys for Torrance-based Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc. said Friday’s verdict in Torrance Superior Court Judge William Beverly’s courtroom represents one of the largest such penalties ever posted against the company.

Most of the jury’s award was to go to Cynthia Gosper, a Garden Grove woman whose neck was shattered when the Toyota SR5 truck she was driving on a family vacation in Arizona rolled over after being rear-ended.

Jurors concluded that there was a defect in the truck’s design that caused it to topple out of control from a paved highway and that caused the driver’s side door to pop open, throwing Gosper from the truck. She now is a quadriplegic.

“This certainly is precedent-setting. There is no doubt about that,” said Raymond P. Johnson, one of Gosper’s attorneys. “We don’t know of any other similar verdict in the country.”

Attorneys for Toyota said they will appeal the decision, insisting that the four-wheel-drive truck is both stable and safe.

“The saddest part on behalf of Toyota is that we were unable to communicate adequately to the jury the utility and truly safe nature of this four-wheel-drive vehicle,” said Brian Eyres, one of the auto maker’s lawyers.

During the trial, Toyota attorneys blamed the force of the rear-end collision for the roll-over and contended that rocks or vegetation could have knocked open the door latch as the truck tumbled.

“We find no problem in our vehicle,” Eyres said.

An analyst with the Center for Auto Safety, a Washington-based group founded by consumer advocate Ralph Nader, applauded the jury’s decision, noting that studies show the Toyota four-wheel-drive truck does have a high roll-over rate.

“I think the jury was correct in their decision that the vehicle was designed in an unstable manner,” analyst Sam Cole said.

Statistics from the federal Fatal Accident Reporting System for the 1984 through 1986 model years of Toyota four-wheel-drive trucks show that 30 of the truck’s 35 fatal accidents involved roll-overs. Liability attorneys reached elsewhere in the nation said the Torrance verdict will spur others to file lawsuits.

“To me, that says something about the vehicle’s stability,” Cole said.

In the Torrance case, jurors said Gosper, now 35, should receive $5.27 million. The remaining $100,000 will be divided between her two children, Christine, now 11, and Melissa, now 9, who were riding in a camper shell and suffered cuts and bruises in the accident.

Gary Gosper, the children’s father and Cynthia’s ex-husband, also suffered minor injuries in the crash. Because they divorced late last year, he dropped out of the suit shortly before the trial began.

The Gospers had been on their way to a Grand Canyon vacation, in part to celebrate their purchase two months before of the 1981 Toyota SR5 truck.

As they left the town of Seligman, Ariz., shortly before daybreak on April 29, 1984, a 1973 Ford station wagon rear-ended their truck. The uninsured driver of the station wagon fled.

Attorneys for both Toyota and the Gospers agree that the truck was traveling about 55 m.p.h. at the time of the collision. They differed on whether the station wagon was moving at about 90 m.p.h. or closer to 70 m.p.h.

After the impact, the Toyota skidded off the highway, swayed onto two wheels and rolled over several times. The driver’s side door popped open, throwing Cynthia Gosper from the truck. She landed on her neck, breaking it.

Jurors initially came back with an award for $6.2 million, but reduced those damages by 15%, concluding that her failure to wear a seat belt was part of the cause for her injuries.

In interviews after their verdict, jurors said they voted 11 to 1 that the truck’s design was flawed, splitting on whether the defect was in the truck’s stability or the door latch that opened.

Jury foreman Bob Anderson of El Segundo said he hoped all manufacturers of four-wheel-drive trucks will take note of the verdict. “All the automobile industry should look at what is safe for the motoring public,” Anderson said. “This truck is not.”