$5.3 Million Won by Woman in GM Faulty Brake Case
A jury last week awarded $5.3 million to an Encino teacher who was severely injured in a traffic accident when a pickup truck’s brakes failed, and the teacher’s attorney contends that there are dangerous design flaws in thousands of the trucks still on the road.
Beverly Hills attorney A. Tod Hindin urged a recall of an estimated 200,000 1977 General Motors heavy- and medium-duty trucks with single hydraulic brake systems, calling them “time bombs waiting to go off.”
GM officials said they have no intention of recalling the trucks, which they say are perfectly safe.
Hindin’s client, Lois Gass, suffered a broken neck, a ruptured spinal disc and an eye injury when the car in which she was riding was rear-ended by a 1977 Chevrolet C-65 truck July 31, 1984.
The driver of the truck, Ron Wood, an employee of a Chatsworth T-shirt distributor, Clothes for Heroes, testified during the trial that he was traveling about 55 m.p.h. when the brakes on the 12,000-pound truck suddenly failed at the top of the Sepulveda pass on the northbound San Diego Freeway.
As Wood pumped the brakes and furiously honked the horn, the truck, going about 70 m.p.h., slammed into a Honda Prelude carrying Gass and two other teachers, then smashed into another car and pickup truck before coming to rest on the center divider.
Wood was not hurt but Gass and five other people suffered injuries ranging from minor to serious.
An investigation by the California Highway Patrol showed that a hole developed in the truck’s brake line allowing brake fluid to escape. This essentially left the truck without brakes, court documents indicated.
Gass, 46, and her husband, Mervyn, filed a product liability lawsuit in Van Nuys Superior Court contending that the GM truck was defectively designed because it contained a single, rather than a dual, hydraulic brake system and that the brake line burst because it was too close to an exhaust manifold.
Also named as defendants were the T-shirt company, which allegedly failed to properly maintain the truck; Gene Berg GMC of Van Nuys, which sold the truck, and Murray’s Truck Service of Chatsworth, which the Gasses contended negligently failed to inspect the brake lines while servicing the truck 45 days before the collision.
GM’s attorney, Eugene R. Grace, argued that the single brake system is safe and that a dual brake system was not required by federal law until six years after the manufacture of the truck involved in the accident.
GM blamed the accident on Wood’s driving and poor maintenance of the truck, which had formerly been owned by a truck rental outlet. The auto maker also contended that Gass is not disabled and could return to work.
After a six-week trial before Judge Thomas Schnider, the jury absolved Gene Berg GMC of any blame in the accident but ordered GM and Murray’s Truck Service to pay $5.3 million to Lois Gass and $350,000 to her husband. The jury said GM should pay 85% of the judgment, with the truck service paying the rest.
The insurance company for the T-shirt manufacturer earlier paid the Gasses $750,000 in an out-of-court settlement but since the jury did not find the T-shirt company at fault, GM and Murray’s will be required to reimburse the money, Hindin said.
The jury did not award the Gasses punitive damages.
Four of the other five people injured in the accident also filed suits but settled out of court for about $600,000 from GM, the truck company and the T-shirt manufacturer, said Hindin.
GM spokesman Sharon Hines said the company may appeal the verdict, which she called “wrong.”
“We believe the truck was properly designed and we have no intention of recalling trucks similar to the one involved in this case,” she said.
Dual hydraulic brake systems--which provide a backup brake system in case the primary brakes fail--have been required by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on passenger cars since the 1967 model year but were not required on medium- and heavy-duty trucks until the 1983 model year, said Tim Hurd, the highway administration’s chief of public affairs.
Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the Washington-based Center for Auto Safety, founded in 1970 by consumer advocate Ralph Nader, agreed with Hindin that the single system is defective, adding: “A system that is as vital to the operational safety of the vehicle as the brakes should have a backup.”
Hurd said the highway administration cannot order an auto maker to retroactively install safety features that were not required when a vehicle was manufactured.
The agency keeps no statistics on the number of single-brake system trucks involved in accidents, Hurd said. But he noted that the agency has seen “no indication of a safety defect trend with these trucks.” Even if a defect were to be found, the statute of limitations on recalls is eight years, Hurd said.
