Jury Orders Ford to Pay $7 Million to Family of Mustang Crash Victim
A jury in a Kanawha County, West Virginia court found Ford Motor Co. at fault and ordered the automaker to pay out $7 million to the family of a victim who died in a crash involving her 2014 Mustang and a pickup truck in March 2016.
The victim, 19-year-old Breanna Bumgarner, became trapped inside her Mustang after a 1989 Toyota pickup driven by Anna Errickson, who was a minor at the time, veered over the centerline on U.S. 33 and struck the A-pillar area of the Ford at 59 mph, the lawsuit reportedly stated. The resulting impact entrapped Bumgarner and caused the Mustang to catch fire, which led to her being burned alive, according to the lawsuit in the Kanawha County Circuit Court.
The plaintiffs alleged the car's brake fluid reservoir was not sufficiently protected from the impact, and that it was what led to the fire happening in the first place. They also alleged the reservoir and dashboard would be pushed into the cabin after an impact. One of Ford's lawyers, James Feeney, refuted any wrongdoing by the manufacturer.
"The plaintiff's case is built entirely up on the performance of a Ford Mustang in what is called the small overlap rigid barrier test," Feeney said, according to the West Virginia Gazette. "That test is not this accident."
"This accident has nothing to do with that test," Feeney continued. "Why do I say that? Because the small overlap barrier test does not occur at 40 degrees into the side of a vehicle. It's not a vehicle-to-vehicle test. The barrier itself is the equivalent of a pole being struck b y a car right at the corner of a vehicle. That's not [this] accident."
The jury awarded $2 million to Bumgarner's family for her "conscious pain and suffering" at the time of the incident and another $5 million to Angel Tyler, the victim's mother, after over two weeks of testimony. The jury found Ford was 99 percent at fault for Bumgarner's death, with the other 1 percent of fault going to Errickson.
Ford intends to appeal the jury's decision.
"While our sympathies go out to Ms. Bumgarner's family and we respect the jury's decision, we do not believe the verdict is supported by evidence," a company spokesperson told the WV Gazette. "We will review options for appeal."
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