OXNARD : Truck Exhibit Turns Court Into Showroom

What do you call a pickup truck that’s missing its front end and will collapse into four pieces if bolts are removed from just the right places?

A courtroom exhibit.

Jurors trying to decide who was at fault in a 1992 Subaru Brat crash that left an Oxnard youth permanently disabled are getting a close-up look at the model in question as it sits a few feet from them, dwarfing almost everything else in the courtroom.

“That’s pretty bizarre,” Superior Court Judge Joe Hadden admitted when asked about the idea of bringing an actual truck into the courtroom for trial.

But Hadden said he gave permission for the vehicle to be in court--even though he had never heard of such a thing--because it helps demonstrate the points the trial lawyers are trying to make.

“It’s obvious it shows the jury very precisely what the vehicle construction is,” Hadden said.

The issue is whether Subaru of America and Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. were negligent for placing passenger seats in the Brat’s open cargo bed. Israel Echevarria was an 18-year-old Oxnard youth about to join the Navy when he was thrown from the Brat’s trademark rear-facing seats during a crash.

He was thrown nearly 40 feet, remained in a coma for three months and lost his left arm. Now, three years later, he uses a wheelchair and has been told by doctors he will not walk again.

His attorney, Edward Steinbrecher, contends that the seats were slapped into the back of the Brat so it could qualify as a recreational vehicle instead of a pickup truck and thereby avoid heavy import tariffs.

In court papers, the attorney for Subaru has denied that. He refused to be interviewed for this story.

Steinbrecher said it cost $8,000 to find a 1980 Brat like the one in which Echevarria was injured and have it altered for courtroom use.

A specialist cut off the vehicle’s front end and sliced the remaining truck carcass into four pieces so it could fit through the courtroom doors. Once inside the courtroom, the pieces were bolted together and the tires were put back on.

With the rear end facing the jury box and the tailgate down, jurors have a clear and constant view of the cargo bed and the seats in question.

“It’s the best piece of evidence to put before the jury,” Steinbrecher said.

The truck, which has been in the courtroom a week, was used during the testimony of vehicle design engineer John Stilson, who at one point got into a rear seat to show the jury that his head was higher than the truck cab he leaned against.

The vehicle is expected to remain in the courtroom for another few days, but the show of unusual exhibits will not be over.

Steinbrecher said that later in the trial, the jury will be looking at a 12-foot scale model of the roadway where the crash occurred.