How, I ask, is it possible to have a ’slow easy’ rollover at 67mph?
If conditions are right you can roll at far slower speeds and not have it ’slow and easy’.
The question is seperate from the dynamics of SUV’s to roll so I dont think that is the issue here.

A “slow, easy roll” at 37 mph over the corner’s posted speed limit.

Yeah. This payoff was a PR move, like most. The news agencies would eat up “Ford countersues family of decased son”.

Also, what tires were on that Explorer?

does it matter? 67 in a 30mph bend in an Explorer…what are your chances? having michelin pilot sports would not have helped this teen…

Yeah that is total crap. Going 17 mph over the posted speedl imit and 37 mph over the speed limit for the curve in a vehicle not designed to go threw corners at speed…

Real brilliant there. Not a huge loss to the gene pool just natural selection at work.

The Explorer is generally a POS, but punk-boy was doing 67 on a bend yellowed at 30. His family should simply get over the fact that they raised a retard, and the world is better off without him. Tell ya this much – his parents and their ambulance-chasing lawyer sure are better off … to the tune of 15 million bucks.
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I can hear it now —> “Ohhhhhhh how we dearly miss poor Tyler, who never did anything wrong or tried to break any laws, including speed limits or laws of physics. Pass the Champagne, Watson.”

Head- awsome point, i just hope i dont raise my twins to be that retarded…maybe i should move back to der Vaterlandt

Don’t worry, No money gets awarded for real.
The Appeals court will reverse the decision.

Driver’s Ed shoudl have taught kids that they have to slow down when turning.
Cars aren’t meant to sit upside down in the first place.
And Ford’s vehicles did comply by the federal laws of the time on roof strength… A time when the law did not require much.
Because cars aren’t meant to sit upside down. Just as cars aren’t meant to be driven straight into a wall at 60 mph.
Just as you aren’t suppose to put your hand on a hot stove.
Just as you aren’t suppose to take a kitchen knife and see if it hurts to poke yourself with it.

Landers-awsome

“Tyler Moody, 18, was killed Jan. 7, 2003, when he lost control of the sport utility vehicle while he was passing another vehicle in a no passing zone on a curve, according to a Nov. 14 order by U.S. Chief District Judge Claire Eagan. The SUV left the road and rolled at least 1 1/2 times, coming to rest on its roof.

So not only was he speeding around a corner he was passing in a no passing zone. Lucky he didnt’ take out the car he was passing or hit another family head on.

IDIOT

Found On Road Dead = FORD

His parents need a swift beating too, as they should have known better to let him go out in their family vehicle whereby he proceeded to emulate Speed Racer. Now Ford has to pay? No wonder other countries laugh their asses off at us…we do have some stupid citizens.

Kid was an idiot and the parents have no shame to litigate in cash for themselves vs. making cars/trucks better.

Just to play Devil’s advocate…

Wouldn’t it rather suck to get hurt/killed by your own vehicle for every bone-head move we all have made, one time or another, just because some penny-pinching project manager took out seven bucks from the body-in-white costs by engineering DOWN to the regulation???

Sure, Ford only built to the older regulations to save costs but even their purchased division, Volvo, made money while selling safer, stronger, better products. Once rolled a 240D wagon in Utah at twice that speed and walked away with only a fit of laughter and snow in every crevice.

yeah what the hell the kid was driving rediculously fast, they dont deserve anything

and mygodbeatsyourgod…. how the hell did you get a 240D to do 134mph? My GLI tops out at 130… and its a hell of alot faster than a 240D.

I must say while i find it redicoulus that ford has to pay we shouldn’t be a bit more comprehensiv. i mean who hast gone fast, who hasnt bent the rules a bit? I know i’ve done my fair share of stupid things in a car. So have some sympathy for the kid, and just dont have this sueing mentality that all americans seem to have.

wwow american justice continues to impress me….not

Explorers are PsOS. My dad had one.

Complete crap.

Personal responsibility…..its what’s for dinner.

If you buy crap and drive it beyond its design parameters, what do you expect?

Too bad the kid died, the parents should have bought a different car for their young and inexperienced driver to pilot.

The US legal system throws personal responsibilty out the window.

I read the comments and have yet to find one that said the family was right….thats cuse the kid was a dumbass common sense says that the suv will rollover when u turn at high speeds

You know what, the kid could have died in almost any vehical given that set of conditions, but we sould not let that distract us from the good that could come of this. That fact of the matter is the vehical in question should have preformed better in that accident. What it that vehical rolled over because some side swiped them while traveling on a freeway some where? What if it wasn’t the kids fault? What if it was you behind the wheel and you put in a position where the car was going to roll over? I would want a car that had better roof support, how about you?

This is so stupid. I guss I should crash my Jeep, then let my family sue the manufacturer for not installing a stop suicide function in the car.

Elvio, that’s a very nice idea.
What if, in the future, there is a stop suicide function?
Now we have ABS, traction control, vehicle stability control, next is a handling safety control?
A control that will force your car to brake, the engine cut out, to match the angle of the steering wheel, so that the car cannot go faster than it can handle at a certain turning radius.

Don… Gun don’t kill people. It is people who kill people.

I read on CNN once a male giant panda tried to kill a drunk man, who tried to snuggle with the panda.
I guess the panda wasn’t an interspecies homosexual.

But the point is, some people deserve to be killed, and it’s not the panda who killed the people.
For that, you’ll have to look to guns. Or knives.
But that’s not to encourage one to use guns or knives.
It’s to remind us that these things kill people, and we should be smart enough to take care to avoid them.
This leads us to conclude that, when you are drunk, don’t walk home on a route that lets you go near the zoo.
Also avoid high schools too. The latest news on CNN has a 17 year old driver ram a bus off a freeway, killing 4 students.
choose your path wisely, avoid obvious hazards, and God Bless his children.

Darwinism.

While I agree that a greater degree of personal responsibility is required, it is a two-way street. Sure, the kid was stupid, but let’s remember that he wasn’t even old enough to buy a beer. Ford, on the other hand, is a huge multinational congolmerate of people clever enough to engineer stuff down to an absolute minimum limit. Shouldn’t they be responsible as well? After all, 15 million might seem like a lot, but how much do you think Ford saved by skimping on the roofs?

I would have thought their involvement in Jurassic Park would have given them excellent test data on how to strength the Explorer’s roof.

/no

Stupid is as Stupid does.

http://www.geocities.com/lucath/maxim2.html?200623

http://www.geocities.com/lucath/maxim2.html?200623

check this out

I think the claim is ridiculously out of order and yes the payoff is all PR.

The speed was not legal, where he was driving was not legal and tbh if you die in an accident donig something illegal it is your own fault.

If ever I am speeding I will understand it is my full responsibility for doing so.

Fine, I’m not saying all legal limits are correct but 30mph advised speed on said bend seems like it was there for a reason.

$15m seems a lot to pay just to help natural selection on its way, but I guess someone had to do it.

Oh and deantj, I’ve seen Fords in accidents fare very well.. but this is mainly in Europe…

Hah, even something as minor as a Saxo VTR hitting a 3dr Cossie left the cosworth sierra unscathed and the saxo’s lights all smashed and bumper/grille not looking too pleasant…

I second the Dawinism Nomination. If the kid was stupid enough to drive recklessly, then he deserves everything he got. I know i sound like a heartless jerk, but this is absurd. I wonder how the vehicle would have performed if this little moron was travelling as a safe and reasonable speed.
I forgot, no one in the USA is every liable or responsible for their own actions. Stupid.

Jeff in Canada –”no one in the USA is every liable or responsible for their own actions”

Sure seems like it sometimes. Whomever has the bigger wallet, that who the blame goes to.

Tort Reform. We need it bad here in the US.

Nonsense! So if someone saw a sign that said dont drive over the cliff, and they did and the vehicle was weak in absorbing the tumble it would be the company to blame. My heart goes out to the family but the signs were there for a reason!!!

I think the Explorer roof performed as designed.
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The article says his “his neck was pushed into his chest by the intruding roof” which was intentional, because like the rest of us Ford knows that if you are so retarded as to take a 30mph corner at 67mph, you need to die, and the intent of pushing your neck into your chest is is both practical and humane in that it:
1) ensures you are no longer a burden to society,
2) severs your nerves from your brain so you can’t feel the pain,
3) keeps you from looking for a way to survive which you don’t deserve,
4) keeps you from looking at the disaster your idiocy caused, and
5) gives the rest of us a reason to laugh at your sorry butt.
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Kudos to Ford, and I hope they kick ass in appeal.

Sorry, A4… I “doubled” the wrong number and did a bad conversion…’

I was doing about 130 klicks in a British Columbia registered Volvo, i.e. Kilometres on the gauge. I believe 130 km/h is about 80 mph… and 80mph is about top speed of a 240D!!

I was about to say BS but that part about the neck being pushed into his chest. Crap I don’t even know anymore.

well thats ford for u cheep medal to save money i dont trust anything that company makes have u seen the knew exployer?, looks so dam ugly they should just call it the ugly box!

chevy49 thats ford us for you.. look at the euro Focus… heighest safety rating in class…

LamborghiniZ….when the boy didn’t even respect his won life and the others (who might have been kill because of his action), how could you expect us, the general public, to respect him? Where is your reasoning??

LamborghiniZ…..if that’s the case…would you respect the terrorists who were killed by the US army?? Your reasoning is that no matter who did what, as soon the person is dead, we need to pay the respect. What a jok!!!

Lambo can’t wait for Charles Manson to die so he can speak kind words about “dear, lovable, kind Charlie who wouldn’t hurt a fly” much less a fetus.

Elvio, you’re making a false comparison, the two are completely unrelated, I’m simply saying that since he died recently, and died under accidental conditions, you guys could oh i dont know, not tell him he was the scurge of society and that he deserved to die. Yes, that is being an asshole, telling him he deserved to die when you know nothing more about him than how fast he went when his car rolled. Ricardo Head, another false comparison, stick to what we’re talking about, try and not get off subject buddy

So does this mean you aren’t gonna mourn for Manson? If you don’t, you might hurt his family’s feelings.
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Face it Lambo, this dead punk deserves to be laughed at just like the 15 people (on average) who die each year in the USA trying to steal candy from vending machines by shaking them and they end up tipping the machines onto themselves. Or like the guy who anally speared himself buttriding a plunger-handle attached to the bathtub and he slipped & fell. All are idiotic “accidents” which could have been avoided it the idiots hadn’t been so stupid to begin with, but hey, that’s Darwinsim at work. There are only two thing good things to come out of this punk’s death: (1) he didn’t kill anyone else in his idiocy, and (2) everyone but you got a laugh out of it. I guess the fact that his parents can now score a house in La Jolla is number 3, but as I said above if his own parents make a public spectacle of their kids idiocy, then we can all laugh at punk-boy too. I hope the chick you are trying to impress with your compassion is worth it, but if you were smart like the rest of us you’d just figure out how to fake like you care.

Lambo, just let it go. If you have that saintly compassion for anybody who died regardless of their reason for dying then more power to you. Me and the rest of the guys here are thankful that the world is spared of another idiot before he can further “contribute” to the world gene pool. If he’s still within the boundary of correction, God would’ve spared him in the first place. And who are you to argue with God?

I can’t argue with god Veda, you’re right, because God is a figment of your imagination, a completely fabricated idea, something that you believe in simply so that the crazy questions you don’t know the answers to, such as where we go when we die, can be comfortably answered by saying god will take care of it, and **** like that. Can’t argue with something that doesn’t exist buddy, and god most certainly doesn’t exist.

Every car driving over the speed limit is unsafe car. If this case is about the Ford roll over because of the legal speed, then I won’t argue about the responsibility that Ford should have. The fact is that this moron did the crazy ( illegal by law ) act that he knew it will cause a diaster to himself and to the other road users, and he end up killing himself in the “ACCIDENT”. Should I respect him??

If you don’t know what the accident means, here may help you….

ACCIDENT–An unexpected and undesirable event, especially one resulting in damage or harm: car accidents on icy roads.
(Source : http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/accident )

Clearly….the event that caused the death of the moron is not something that unexpected nor undesirable (by him) because he intended to do so. So, this is not an accident. He simply wanted to get himself killed.

So…stop your non-sense.

LamborghiniZ: you’re just digging yourself into a deeper hole than you’re already in. Give it up, you lost, go cry to daddy now. Oh, and God most certainly does exist. Dumb ass.

Once again stupidity is rewarded and taking responsiblity for your own stupid actions is ignored! God bless America!!!!!!!!!

1c3d0g – show me proof. thats right, you have none. the end.

“…but jesus christ the guy just DIED and you’re all insulting him like he was a neo nazi or something, …”

Lambo, why refer to Jesus if you don’t believe in God? Then it is certainly not my imagination.

Isn’t it the teachings of Jesus (and other religious leaders) that promote “respect” for other people? You know–Do unto others, etc? If God truly doesn’t exist, then why is it so important to respect another person, alive or dead? And if respect is SO important to Lambo & deantj, then why are they so blatantly disrespectful to others on this forum…or is it that being dead is the only way someone gets respect from them? Just curious.

Veda: using the term “jesus christ” has nothing to do with believing in him, lets be real, lets be objective here, it’s a mannerism, it’s a part of speech that has little to NO religious connotation anymore.

90Z: You’re getting overly technical, I’m being “so blatantly disrespectful” to people who are being crude and rude about someone dying that they no nothing about. And if the “teachings of jesus” promote so much respect, why are so many religious fanatics completely intolerant, completely bigoted, and totally out of touch with reality?

^^I agree that people should have more respect for the dead, but this kid did not respect those around him by driving the way he did. As they say here in America, your constitutional right to do as you please ends when it interferes with my right to do as I please. That’s basically why the kid is not getting any respect here. His disregard for the safety of both himself and others is the crux of the matter here–not simply “respect for the dead.” Once you separate the two issues, you might see why you’re taking so much flak about this.

As for the teachings of Jesus, you don’t have to be a fanatic to follow in his footsteps. True, there are some seriously hypocritical followers who consider themselves pious, but you should not be fooled by them because they are not what it’s all about. Unfortunately, it only takes a few bad apples to ruin it for everyone.

90Z, i see your point about his dis regard for safety, and I agree in that he was truly idiotic when it came to that, so I’m willing to accept an attitude of compromise, maybe all of you don’t have to show active ‘respect’ towards him, but you sure as hell dont have to talk **** about him either.

Who’s talkin? I’m laughin!

You’re trying so hard to rub your point in, but in the end you just look childish Ricardo, grow a pair, let them drop, and then we can discuss this again

Still laughin, Lambo.
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You bleeding hearts who think every raging worthless idiot who pushed his luck beyond the four-leaf clover is of some type of value to society are the childish ones to me, so who gives a rat’s butt. You treat those who live and laugh with disrespect, and I treat those whose idiocy caused their own death with disrespect. I figure society is better off without them. I suppose if punk-boy’s idiocy had caused the death of a family member of yours, you’d go to punk-boy’s funeral and weep for the tragic loss of some 2-bit worthless ****head to society. Oh yeah, I’m sure that’s what you’d do, to show how much you respect him for being an idiot and killing your loved one.
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You never told us, by the way, is the floozy you are faking compassion to impress worth it?

^^^Oh….Ricardo…by the way…the best of all…that kid’s family will get $15mil. from Ford, and the other person (you mentioned, if there is any) will get nothing.

“maybe all of you don’t have to show active ‘respect’ towards him, but you sure as hell dont have to talk **** about him either.”

I’m sorry, I guess you’d rather be talking **** to us than to a stupid kid that broke the law. Well since you don’t believe in God, I guess it makes sense…

A perfect example of how screwed up the U.S. legal system is. The fact that Ford is a big company is irrelevant in this case. Think about it: if it were a small company, then it would be OK that the roof collapsed? Of course not.

All the family and lawyers wanted was money, yet money didn’t fix anything. You can’t replace a loved one with any amount of money. The lawyers got half of that judgment, and they’re very happy.

Look, if the family and lawyers really wanted to make this world a better place, they would sue to require Ford and other automakers to strengthen the roofs of SUV’s for rollover accidents. If they automakers don’t comply, then they will be forced to pay $15 million in penalty payments. But no, the low life’s parents and their blood sucking lawyers just wanted to make money off of a stupid tragedy. They should be ashamed of themselves.

I hope the appelate courts hang these ambulance chasers out to dry and gives Ford back its money (which we as consumers will all be paying for one way or another). This liberal nonsense of the big company which is always evil and out to kill everyone against the little guy who can do no wrong no matter how stupid he is, HAS GOT TO STOP!

People need to be responsible for their own actions, and their own mistakes. This kid made a mistake. A mistake that cost him his life. Ford didn’t make the mistake. He did.

LamborghiniZ: Don’t come in here and try to make the people with sound reasoning, look like “heartless jackasses.” Fact of the matter is, you just want to make yourself look and feel better, by pretending that you actually give a sht and have feelings for this kid who rolled his car and died by exceeding the speed limit around a curve, while illegally passing another vehicle, in an SUV, and then having his dirtball family win $15m in a frivolous lawsuit. You don’t really give a crank, so don’t act like you do. Not like the family deserved ANY compensation whatsoever for their son’s mistake. And let me quote some good words from “Ricardo Head”:

I think the Explorer roof performed as designed.
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The article says his “his neck was pushed into his chest by the intruding roof” which was intentional, because like the rest of us Ford knows that if you are so retarded as to take a 30mph corner at 67mph, you need to die, and the intent of pushing your neck into your chest is is both practical and humane in that it:
1) ensures you are no longer a burden to society,
2) severs your nerves from your brain so you can’t feel the pain,
3) keeps you from looking for a way to survive which you don’t deserve,
4) keeps you from looking at the disaster your idiocy caused, and
5) gives the rest of us a reason to laugh at your sorry butt.
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Kudos to Ford, and I hope they kick ass in appeal.

sorry to be so late logging into the discussion, this is the first chance I’ve had to log on to this forum.

I sat through the entire 8 days of the trial & I can tell you the short paragraph everyone has been responding is grossly misleading. That info came from an AP writer who admittedly took all of his so called “facts” from the closing arguments by the plaintiffs & defense attorneys. These are obviously biased statements being made to sway the jury & not reflective of the facts revealed during the 8 days of the trial. The evidence presented during trial gave the jury & will give you, a completely different understanding of the actual facts of the case.

For example, everyone has 3 basic assumptions about the case that were proved factually wrong during the trial. the 3 basic assumptions are 1. the trip speed of the vehicle was 67mph. 2. The the vehicle rolled passing another car in the curve. 3. The legal speed limit in the curve was 30mph. All 3 assumptions were proved patently false at trial… but since Ford’s attorneys didn’t have any better case to make in closing arguements they regurgitated the same bad logic they used in opening statements. The jury saw through it & judged for the plaintiffs.

To help you understand what the jury heard and acted on, let me at least address those 3 bad assumptions:

1st, The actual trip speed of the Moody vehicle was 40-42mph… does that change anyone’s comments? This “actual” trip speed was acknowledged openly by both plaintiffs & defenses experts. Ford expert even admited the trip speed may even had been lower.

So if the actual trip speed was 40-42mph, why are stories reporting 67mph as the speed at the time of the accident. As I mentioned, the reporter got his notes from closing arguements. Ford knew it had no solid defense so they had to “create” a defense by distorting facts & pulling unrelated facts into the equation with the sole purpose of confusing the jury. (A common tactic if you follow Ford’s defense cases of rollover accidents.)

The 67mph figure was used by an accident reconstructionist who estimated a “possible” speed of the moody vehicle, at a place before the accident, & before the curve, on Delaware not 121st Street. The reconstructionist admitted that projected speeds that far away from the actual point of the accident were not extremely accurate & that the moody vehicle could have just as likely been going 57mph.

The legal speed of this entire stretch of road is 50mph, from Delaware, through the curve & on to 121st Street. This is a rural road paralleling a river, with little cross traffic. So most cars travel it at near 60mph down this stretch most of the time.

The passenger in the Moody vehicle told police at the scene that he believed their speed to be between 55-60mph, totally consistent with the reconstructionists explaination that he could have reasonably been going 57mph at this point.

Keep in mind, we are not even close to the point of the accident yet, which occurs past the far end of a long sweeping curve, but in Ford’s desperation, they latched on to the 67mph # & interjected as often as humanly possible in the trial, as if it had something to do withn the speed at the point of the accident. It did not.

Ford implied not only that the Moody vehicle was going 67mph down Delaware, but also into the curve, that they
claimed had a legal limit of 30mph, putting the Moody vehicle at 37mph over the limit. Lies. More desperation on Ford’s part, attempting to fabricate evidence to build a case. The best witness for the Moody vehicle speed entering the curve was the driver in vehicle immediately in front of the Moody vehicle. She said the Moody explorer was directly behind her in the curve, positioning for the pass. She stated she knew her speed going into the curve was 50mph & slowing. The Moody vehicle stayed behind her car through the curve putting his speed at 50mph & slowing…, not 67mph as again misstated by Ford!

The legally enforceable limit on the curve is 50mph. So at this point, the moody vehicle is at or below the posted limit (lie #2 exposed by Ford’s imaginative legal team.

Ford further states that the “real” speed limit on the curve is 30mph because of an advisory siggn posted on the curve. (Lie #3 about to be exposed). When city engineers looked at the safe speeds for this stretch of rural river road, they determined the entire stretch down the North-South Delaware Avenue, through the sweeping cuve as the road bends left, or to the East to accommodate a bend in the Arkansas river, & then on to the connecting road 121st Street running East-West to be 50mph.

Many, many years ago, when this entire stretch was really rural farmland, night time drivers, not anticipating a 90 degree bend in the road, and with limited distance vision, often found themselves missing the turn & running off into a farmers field. An inconvenience for both the farmer & for the unsuspecting drivers who found themselves unexpectedly stuck in the mud.

So the city put uop a series of reflective arrows & an advisory speed sign of 30mph to help those night drivers keep on the road. The Moody accident happened midday, at 2:50pm.

The legal curve limit is 50mph & the Moody vehicle was going 50mph & slowing through the curve

Quite a different picture than the Ford attempt to sway the jury & public opinion into believing he was recklessly going 37mph over the legal, limit, huh? You’ve got to give Ford credit. They ARE masters of misdirection.)

Are you tired of reading yet? I know I’m tired of typing, but I have to finish what I started. Next big lie: Ford states the moody vehicle passed the other car in a no passing Zone in the middle of the curve. The facts of the case was that the Tulsa police department had an accident reconstruction team on the scene the day of the accident and used direct witness testimony & detailed physical evidence at the scene to determine that the Moody vehicle had completely passed through the entire length of this broad sweeping curve and had entered on 121st Street, a flat, straight unobstructed stretch of road before initiating his passing manuever.

An independent accident reconstructionists was on the scene & came up with the same conclusion. The Moody vehicle had completely passed through the curve & had entered the flat,straight, unobstructed road that is 121st Street.

And, because the Moody vehicle had entered the curve at 50mph & slowing, that would make the best guess of his speed starting the pass, at between 45-50mph.

Isn’t it amazing how Ford’s Attorney’s could take a set of near truths & then bend them to fabricate a case. It’s a far cry to have a rollover that actually occured at a speed of 40-42mph, on a level, straight, unobstructed section of road with a legal limit of 50mph verses the way they tried to twist the facts to make it appear that he was going 67mph in a legal zone of 30mph & that he had rolled trying to pass in a no passing zone, on a curve. UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!!

I know you must be tired of reading, but this far into it I might as well finish the story. According to the accident reconstructionists, as the Moody vehicle attempted to pass, he swung out just a little wide as he was passing the car in front of him causing his two tires on the drivers side to drop slightly off of the paved surface onto a dirt & gravel shoulder.

Like most drivers in that situation, Moody pulled hard to bring the vehicle back on the road & back across to his side. Eye witnesses of the accident said it appeared Moody had regained control of the vehicle but suddenly the backwheels slipped & fishedtailed causing the vehicle to slide off of the road on the right side & put the vehicle in a brief passenger side slide, off the paved road in a grassy strip adjacent to the paved strip. Shortly thereafter the passenger side wheels “caught” in the grass, causing the Explorer to tip & continue rolling in the grass for approximately 1&1/2 rolls, coming to rest upside down on it’s roof.

Both Ford’s & the plaintiffs experts agreed the actual trip speed was most likelty 40-42mph. Ford’s expert actually admitted the trip speed may have been as low as 38mph.

Ford tried to paint the rollover itself as horrifically violent & unsurvivabe. Another lie! The rollover was actually a relatively mild, low impact, & highly survivable event. What is the proof? 1st, the rolling vehicle never hit anything solid, no other vehicle, no tree or rock or concrete barrier, literally just the grass. 2nd, the energy was dispersed over many brief cotacts points over almost the entire vehicle & over a total distance of almost 200′. & finally, both boys in the car were TOTALLY UNSCATHED by the actions of the rollover itself, no broken bones, no laceration, no internal bleeding, nothing!

The passenger was able to release his seatbelt and crawl out on his side with only a few minor scratches on his hand. The driver, an extremely fit distance runner & mountain climber also had NO injuries of any significance, truly only a few small scratches. The only difference in the outcome for the two boys, the defective roof strucure on the driver’s side had completel failed causing the roof to crush in, clam-shelling the Moody boy so tightly, he was unable to take in even one full breath to help sustasin him until rescuers could arrive.

A final major distortion on Ford’s part: they say they are being unfairly blamed for the accident. That absolutely is not true & they know it. For the purpose of the lawsuit, the “cause of the accident “is accepted to be driver error. But that was not the basis of the lawsuit in which the jury had to make their finding.

The action against Ford was regarding the “cause of the injury”, in this case death, & whether Ford had pre-existing knowledge of roof defects, the ability to correct them, & then choose not to.

Ford knows & has known for more than a decade, that SUV’S in general & Explorers specifically are MUCH MORE LIKELY than passenger cars to tip into a rollover in even moderate accidents. Ford engineers brought to the attention of Ford’s executive management that the roof supports were not adequate & would likely crush to unacceptable, life threatening amounts if not reinforced.

Ford had been in an economic slump & production of the Explore had lead the revival of the ailing Ford. The profit margin was 38.8%, a whopping $10,000. per car and production couldn’t keep up with demand. When the defect was first exposed, Ford’s Financial advisors did a cost analysis & determined that it would be cheaper to settle future lawsuits, than to stop production & loose profits & risk ternishing the image of their shining star performer intheir lineup.

Their estimates were not TOTALLY wrong. The Explorer went on to be the best selling SUV of ALL TIME with over 5 million vehicles produced generating $50 billion dollars in profits for Ford. Yes, that was billion with a “b”. Perhaps the only thing they hadn’t calculated was the total devastation to the individuals & their families, fo those that lost their life, or were permanently maimed &/or seriously injured due to Ford’s blind pursuir of maximum production & profits.

Finally, as far as the money awarded, unfortunately, in our legal system, it is the ONLY punishment allowed by law. Before the trial Ford’s representatives asked the Moody’s what kind of a settlement they were looking for. They said they knew nothing could ever bring their son back, they just wanted Ford to acknowledge & fix the problem. Ford declined & chose to go to trial. A Federal jury hearing 8 days of testimony & cross examination determined the rest.

Trialobserver, the same bull**** was probably said by the retards who awarded that stupid McDonalds coffee grandma 2 million bucks becuase her coffee was actually hot. If you agree with this verdict, you are a retard and dont bother defending yourself. You are more likely some paid disinformation whack for the goddamned trial lawyer trying to pull public opinion to your side. Or you are a homo who liked Clark Brewster’s flaccid ass.

Wow, that was a well thought out, civilized, inteligent and articulate response to an other wise complex, life & death social issue. Glad I took time to share the details of the actual trial. You have added a great deal of substance to the dialogue. Thank you so much for that well thought out response. Seriously. thank-you!

(& No, I don’t work for or with anyone in the legal profession. I was in the courtroom as a close friend of the deceased.)

Trialobserver, so what are you doing now? Scouring the internet for any discussion of this story? 15 seconds of fame? Let’s say you are who you say you are, sorry for your loss. But seriously, your opus up there, or whatever you call 9 straight hours of typing is just a cynical and arrogant rant on the whole topic. I don’t see much ‘relationship’ coming through.

Thank God for a mouse wheel, my finger got a work out scrolling past that thing.

trialobserver basically proved all of you wrong, lets not get defensive and upset that after all this arguing you are indeed, totally wrong , because the kid wasn’t driving as wrecklessly as you all are saying he was, I mean naturally when someone w/ more info than you comes in and shuts you down it will hurt, but no need to get defensive (i.e Ricardo Head + Piablo)

LamboZ, tell me you didn’t read all of that?!? I didn’t and I don’t care to. If you really want to know why everyone seems so insensitive here, it’s because no one really cares about the person who died. If anyone in this forum cared that I died, I would be a little creeped out. Why would they? It’s the local news syndrome. Do I care really about any one person who dies and their story is plastered all over the local news? No. Millions of people die daily, and I for one don’t have enough in me to really care about any of them beyond a simple ’twas a pity’. It’s not normal to care. I’m just being honest. And anyone who says they really do care, I would ask them to seek help. I would rather see stories on my local news about things that are really affecting me in my area. Someone dying or being murdered is not affecting me. Just because it’s on screen doesn’t make it important. A story about crime rates would, but that is not what it’s ever about. So people here are pulling out of the story what they see as affecting them. And bull**** ludicrous lawsuits affect people. Not to mention, and probably the biggest factor of all, is we all have jobs and can’t sit here contemplating the problems of the world as intricately as we should to have a real meaningful conversation.

Bottom line… the kid rolled that Explorer. I drive SUVs, I know what it takes to roll them. He rolled it, end of story. **** happens, and **** aint worth $15million. Trialobserver could have been there, maybe not. He could be just another bull**** scam artist that litters the internet every day, don’t know. And I’m just here on a free moment, so that’s as much as I will think about Trialobserver. It’s not worth anything more than just that.

**** Trialsubjector, you might even be dumber than Deantj or Lambo. They leave your dead assbuddy in the dust. Literally.
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And now, I think I’ll send a letter to Ford thanking them for designing a vehicle with the specific intent to kill this stupid muddafukkin punk that society needs fewer of.

Piablo, yes I have logged on several sites. it’s painful to read your best friend’s name dragged through the mud, nationally, based on made-up facts! As far as wheter my facts are accurate (or made up) you can check any of them out with with the Tulsa police department. They did all of the original investigation the day of the accident! So they have the most accurate facts available. The other thing most of you guys won’t care about, but for the couple who do, I want you to know what an amazing & truly one-of-a-kind guy Tyler Moody really was. Academically & atheletically gifted, in mega doses, and one of the few eagle scouts in the world to have received the Boy Scouts of America highest award for lifesaving, when he was 14, for pulling a stranded climber off of the face of a 200′ cliff, on a pitch black night, while 40 adults stood by in a panic at the bottom, he took action & saved the kids life. You can verify it in the original AP story from the Tulsa World newspaper. A master rock & ice climber at age 18, he had planned to attend college at Stanford university in California & then go into mountain rescue in Colorado. & that’s just the tip of the iceberg, his list of accomplishments is a mile long & he was just 18. The only point being that he went through an accident, like we all do at one time or another. He should have walked away with a few scratches but it killed him. You don’t know him so I can’t expect you to mourn him. But the world lost a champion, a true hero who did care about everyone he came in contact with. The world needs more like him not less.

LamborghiniZ & Deantj, thank you!

ps. The parents of Tyler are on record saying that after the appeal has run it’s course, whatever settlement money is actually paid, will go straight into a charitable trust in Tyler’s name. That’s the way he was in life, that’s the way he will be in death: helping as many people in crisis as possible, for as long as possible.

Wow this was a pretty interesting read here. Well I have to say three things, deantj, why do you almost always contradict yourself and say Respect For The DEAD, then you go on a worthless rant about how you are going to do stuff to DEAD bodies, retard. Also I am sorry the kid died. Also I think Ford has upgraded the strength of the roofs in their SUV’s, because my brother flipped, yes he flipped a Excursion into the air and then it landed on its roof and then rolled back onto its tires and everybody was fine including my brother, my stepmom, my little half brother and half sisters.

I think the A pillar defect is specific to the Explorer. The A pillar is in front of the driver on the outsides of the passenger comparatment. The B pillars, the outside ones behind the driver’s seat, were reinforced in the mid to late ’90’s & they are stronger. The problem is, without reinforcing the A pillar at the same time, which is what should have happened, the whole roof area between the A & B pillars can crush down all the way to the main body. In the moody car the roof crushed to the midpoint of the streering wheel.

I think the A pillar defect is specific to the Explorer. The A pillar is in front of the driver on the outsides of the passenger comparatment. The B pillars, the outside ones behind the driver’s seat, were reinforced in the mid to late ’90’s & they are stronger. The problem is, without reinforcing the A pillar at the same time, which is what should have happened, the whole roof area between the A & B pillars can crush down all the way to the main body. In the moody car the roof crushed to the midpoint of the streering wheel.