OTHER NEWS - Nov. 16, 1992

Florida Jury Awards $3.7 Million in GM Case: A federal jury in Tampa, Fla., has ordered General Motors Corp. to pay $3.7 million to a man left paralyzed after his 1986 Chevrolet crashed into another car. The jury found GM negligent for failing to install rear-seat shoulder restraints. Xiao-Hu Zhang, then a graduate student at the University of Notre Dame, was injured in a December, 1986, accident near Naples, Fla., when his rental car crashed into a parked car. He was sitting in the back seat and had fastened his lap safety belt. Two friends sitting in the front seat of the rented car were wearing lap and shoulder belts and suffered no permanent injuries. Lawyers for the plaintiff contended that GM knew years ago that the combination of shoulder and lap belts was safer than lap belts alone. GM spokesman John Dinan said he did not have enough information on the verdict to comment.