Trial Begins in Air Bag Injury Suit Against GM
Norma Pruitt never expected that a low-speed fender bender at an Oxnard intersection would cause the protective air bag in her steering wheel to pop out and punch her in the face with the force and precision of a heavyweight boxer.
But that is exactly what happened two years ago, the 78-year-old Ventura woman says, leaving her with a broken jaw and a bundle of medical bills.
Pruitt is now suing General Motors Corp. to cover the cost of those bills, arguing that without the deployment of the air bag, she would not have been injured in the crash.
Her case against the nation’s largest auto maker--only the second of its kind to reach a California courtroom--began Monday in Ventura County Superior Court as lawyers gave opening statements in what is expected to be a one-week jury trial.
Pruitt is seeking more than $400,000 in damages on the grounds that GM knew the air bag in her 1991 Chevrolet Beretta posed a risk of injury yet failed to warn consumers. She also contends that the device was defective.
“I really want this brought to the attention of people,” Pruitt said Monday during a court recess.
“It is a protection,” she said of air bags, credited by the federal government with saving an estimated 1,750 lives in automobile accidents. “But I really do think they should tell you they can be harmful.”
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The National Transportation Safety Board first issued a safety recommendation on air bags in November 1995, urging all domestic and foreign auto makers to launch a mail campaign warning car owners of the risks to children in the event of low-speed accidents. A year later, the Big Three auto makers--GM, Ford and Chrysler--agreed.
To reduce the dangers of air bag deployment, various types of “smart” air bag systems have been proposed. Earlier this month, federal safety regulators gave the nation’s car makers approval to install less powerful air bags in new cars and trucks.
Prior to those alerts, as air bags had become standard equipment in more than 70 million vehicles, more severe injuries and deaths had been reported. Since 1991, 38 children and 24 small adults have been killed as a result of air bags opening in low-speed accidents, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Of the fatalities, five were elderly women, Pruitt’s attorneys point out.
“They use it as a marketing tool, but they don’t tell you the other side of the story,” said Ventura attorney Kevin M. Fillo. “This is really what this case is all about.”
But in opening statements Monday afternoon, the San Jose attorney representing GM argued that the air bag in Pruitt’s car was not defective and was not responsible for her injuries.
“There is nothing wrong with this air bag,” attorney Vincent Galvin told the jury. “It performed as it should have performed.”
Galvin said Pruitt’s jaw broke because she was an elderly woman with extremely delicate bones that would have fractured in the crash regardless of whether the air bag deployed.
“She has the injury not because there is any problem with the car, but because she is unusually susceptible to injury,” Galvin argued. “She has a glass jaw.”
Seated a few feet away in the courtroom, the silver-haired Pruitt shook her head in disagreement as the lawyer spoke. Her “glass” jaw is now reinforced with three steel plates as a result of the accident.
She is in constant pain, cannot eat solid food such as raw vegetables, meat or pasta and says she drools because of nerve damage in her face.
“It hurts to talk, it hurts to eat. It hurts most of the time,” Pruitt said Monday. “It is embarrassing and I really feel they should help me.”
The accident at the center of the legal fight between the diminutive great-grandmother and the Detroit car maker occurred on the afternoon of March 22, 1995.
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Pruitt was headed to the beach but decided to swing by a property she owns in Oxnard on the way, attorney John H. Wolf told the jury in his opening statement.
While attempting to make a left-hand turn onto Carriage Square Drive from C Street, Pruitt, who was wearing her seat belt, collided with another car.
“Her speed at this impact was less than 5 mph,” Wolf said. “She did cause the accident to occur. We believe the evidence will show she did not cause the injuries to occur.”
During the crash, the air bag in Pruitt’s car deployed and hit her in the face, breaking her jaw in three places, Wolf said. She was hospitalized for three days. Her medical bills quickly soared to more than $14,000.
After the accident, Pruitt wrote a letter to GM asking for $5,000 to replace her dentures and pay for some dental work.
For months, she said, the company referred her to different representatives who never addressed her concerns or gave her any money. Finally, she decided to sue. She also decided to buy a new car, and now drives a 1987 Honda--without an air bag.
Her lawsuit, filed in March 1996, contends that GM’s “one size fits all” air bags were not suited for short drivers, particularly women. The lawsuit further argues that the company failed to warn her of any risks associated with the device.
“She was never told that the air bag could kill or cause injury,” Wolf said in his statement.
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But Galvin countered that GM believed the way to avoid injuries was for drivers to wear their seat belts. The only fatal accidents attributed to air bag deployment occurred when the drivers were not wearing seat belts, he said.
“At that time, that was the prescription to the problems GM knew about,” he said.
Galvin said the company was pressured to install air bags by the federal government even as it continued to perform tests on the devices. But he stressed that the air bag in Pruitt’s 1991 Beretta met all federal safety standards.
“We are not dealing with an air bag injury that GM could have warned consumers about,” he said.
