Since Ford was ordered to pay $1.7 billion in punitive damages back in 2022 over an allegation that the roofs present on 1999-2016 Ford Super Duty models aren’t strong enough to hold up in the event of a rollover crash – a decision that stemmed from a wrongful death lawsuit originally filed in 2014 – the automaker has faced a number of new lawsuits pertaining to the same matter. Now, it has yet another one to add to that ever-growing list, too.
According to Car Complaints, this new lawsuit – Deborah King v. Ford Motor Company, et al. – was filed in the Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara by a plaintiff represented by Bisnar Chase LLP. It was filed after the plaintiff’s son – Anthony Contreras – died when his 2008 Ford F-350 Super Duty rolled over in California in May 2023. Contreras reportedly lost control of his truck while trying to pass a semi-truck on the highway, and the lawsuit claims that his death stems from the fact that his Super Duty “lacked sufficient structural integrity in the roof structure to withstand and protect an occupant during a reasonably foreseeable roll-over accidents,” among other issues.
“Had defective and unsafe restraint systems, including but not limited to seat buckles, seat belts, shoulder belts and retractors, with defects including but not limited to false latching, inertial unlatching, inadvertent unlatching, retractor failure, and a system which permits too much vertical excursion of the occupant, which Defendants and each of them knew and were aware would fail to properly restrain an occupant in the SUBJECT VEHICLE in the event of a rollover accident, and which, in this case, failed to properly restrain the Plaintiff,” the lawsuit reads.
While Ford has appealed the original roof crush lawsuit in Georgia, the automaker continues to face new filings on a regular basis. As Ford Authority previously reported, the trucks named in these lawsuits met federal safety standards at the time, which is what FoMoCo has been arguing, though those standards were later changed to address roof strength. Regardless, a number of other roof crush Ford Super Duty lawsuits have been filed since then in the U.S. and Canada, though one of them was recently dismissed, while three of them were consolidated into one this past April.
We’ll have more on this and all of Ford’s active lawsuits soon, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for the latest Ford lawsuit news, Ford Super Duty news, and non-stop Ford news coverage.
Comments
Not sure that I understand the grounds for a lawsuite where the vehicle met Federal safety standards at the time of manufacturing. Is there a ” smoking gun ” document that indicates that Ford new that the roofs would fail during a roll over ? If so, then the Federal safety standards should have been improved for all manufactureres, not just Ford. It appears that lawyers are dragging this issue down the road for all it worth.
I have to side with Ford here. It was also well-known by auto manufacturers in the ’50s and ’60s that 3-point seat belts would make cars safer. No one was suing them in the ’70s over their older cars’ lack of seat belts when people were continuing to be killed in them. Even after the “exploding” Pinto PR disaster.
Another case of it’s someone else’s fault. You rolled your truck when you lost control !
I agree – the casual reader never knows of the details: speed, condition of the tires, condition of the driver, overloaded vehicle, pulling a trailer etc. etc. Seems very unfair to the vehcile manufacturer.
My oldest son rolled a Jeep XJ a few seasons ago when they hit black ice. He tried to control it and couldn’t, rolled it twice in the ditch. If the roof had collapsed, and he had died, would that have been his fault? What if it happened often, that the roof collapsed, when it wasn’t supposed to? Is that still the drivers fault?
Grow up. Things are only black and white in keyboard cowboy land.
This is a BS lawsuit. How fast were these people going? Years ago I had a steering box fail on a 05 F250 and rolled it down a hill, through the trees and into a swamp. I was going 60 mph when I hit the guard rail that rolled me, and that cab survived great (insurance fixed the pickup, it’s sitting in my front yard right now).