Word: pintos
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Ford, for Petersen-and for victory in a Pinto trial...
...Philip Caldwell, 60. The second was for Donald Petersen, 53, who replaced Caldwell as president. The third was for the automaker's acquittal that same day in Winamac, Ind., on unprecedented criminal charges of reckless homicide in the deaths of three teen-age girls in a fiery Pinto crash in 1978. They were the 57th, 58th and 59th people to die in accidents involving the subcompact, which Ford began making...
...stake in the trial was far more than the maximum penalty of $30,000 in fines. Ford's losses in civil suits resulting from Pinto accidents already total millions of dollars. Executives feared that a guilty verdict in Winamac could expose the firm to untold millions of dollars in punitive damages-a penalty above and beyond a plaintiffs actual losses-in the nearly 40 Pinto cases still pending. Little wonder, then, that Ford was reportedly willing to budget $1 million for its defense, which was headed by James Neal, 50, the gravel-voiced Tennessean who was chief prosecutor...
...Winamac case involved a yellow 1973 Pinto that was carrying Judy Ann Ulrich, 18, her sister Lynn Marie, 16, and cousin Donna Ulrich, 18, to volleyball practice in Goshen, Ind., on Aug. 10,1978. As they were headed north on five-lane U.S. Route 33, their car was struck from behind by a 1972 Chevrolet van. The Pinto collapsed like a concertina; its fuel tank ruptured, and the car burst into flames. Lynn Marie and Donna died in the wreck; Judy Ann, who had been driving, was pulled out alive but died within hours at a hospital. Unknown...
...trial, Prosecutor Michael Cosentino set out to prove that Ford knew the gas tanks of the early Pintos were likely to rupture in rear-end crashes, but after a cost-benefit analysis, had decided against installing a $6.65 part that would have helped protect the tanks. Cosentino maintained that Ford then did not try hard enough to warn Pinto owners about the danger. He produced eyewitnesses who testified that the girls' Pinto had been moving at 15 to 35 m.p.h. when struck, meaning that the impact speed was equal to no more than 35 m.p.h. At that speed, Cosentino...