Remington Walden, 4,
was on his way to tennis practice while strapped into the back seat of a 1999
Jeep Grand Cherokee. "They were stopped to turn. They were struck from
behind by a pickup truck, and when the vehicle was struck it caught on fire and
burst into flames," said family attorney Leigh May.
APRIL 3, 2015
ATLANTA, GEORGIA
A south Georgia jury awards $150 million to the family of a
four-year-old Bainbridge boy who was killed in a Jeep crash three years
ago.
Remington Walden was riding in a 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee driven by his aunt when the SUV was rear-ended in March, 2012. The rear-mounted fuel tank on that model Jeep began to leak and exploded in flames.
Jurors decided Chrysler was 99 percent at fault for the accident and acted with reckless disregard to safety. Fiat Chrysler may appeal.
In 2013, Chrysler agreed to recall some older-model Jeeps with rear-mounted fuel tanks and installed trailer hitches as an extra safeguard.
In light of this verdict, safety advocates call on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to expand the recall.
Remington Walden was riding in a 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee driven by his aunt when the SUV was rear-ended in March, 2012. The rear-mounted fuel tank on that model Jeep began to leak and exploded in flames.
Jurors decided Chrysler was 99 percent at fault for the accident and acted with reckless disregard to safety. Fiat Chrysler may appeal.
In 2013, Chrysler agreed to recall some older-model Jeeps with rear-mounted fuel tanks and installed trailer hitches as an extra safeguard.
In light of this verdict, safety advocates call on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to expand the recall.
//-------------------------------//
Bainbridge, Georgia
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles faces allegations
in a high-stakes trial that began Monday in Georgia state court that a
defective fuel tank in a Jeep Grand Cherokee caused a fire that burned a child
to death after a rear-end collision.
The case is the first to go to trial over claims that fuel
tanks in older-model Jeep SUVs are prone to rupture and explode in a collision,
according to attorney Jim Butler of Butler Wooten & Fryhofer LLP, who
represents the plaintiffs. Fiat Chrysler announced a recall of roughly 1.5
million Jeeps in 2013 at the urging of U.S. regulators due to the fire risk,
and consumer safety advocates say the trial could prompt renewed calls for a
broader recall of the vehicles.
The 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee at issue in the case was
ultimately not part of the recall, although the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration initially requested it be included along with model years
1993-1998. The agency has attributed 75 deaths to fires involving Jeep fuel
tanks since 1998.
Butler told jurors during his opening statement Tuesday that
4-year-old Remington Walden died in 2012 after the Jeep he was riding in was
struck from behind at an intersection by a Dodge Dakota truck traveling at 56
miles per hour, and the Jeep's fuel tank exploded, according to a Courtroom
View Network webcast of the proceedings. Butler claimed Chrysler knew of
the risks from locating the vehicle’s fuel tank only 11 inches from the rear
bumper but ignored the problem for years.
“In 1998 Chrysler knew that the gas tank on a 1999 Jeep
Grand Cherokee would be crushed in a rear impact,” Butler said, noting that
Chrysler relocated the fuel tank to the center of the car in later models.
“Chrysler admits it could have put the gas tank on the 1999 Grand Cherokee in
the midships position.”
Butler explained to the jury that everyone else involved in
the accident, including the driver of the second vehicle and other passengers
in the Jeep suffered comparatively minor injuries, and that the only reason the
accident resulted in a fatality was the rear-mounted gas tank. Remington was
restrained in a booster seat at the time of the accident.
“If the wreck does not kill you, then you should not be
burned,” Butler said. “Had there been no fire none of us would be here today
and that boy would be alive and well.”
Remington's parents sued Fiat Chrysler in 2012.
During his opening statements on behalf of Chrysler, Brian
Bell of Swanson Martin & Bell LLP told the jury that the 1999 Jeep Grand
Cherokee was not defectively designed, and that the explosion was the result of
a crash at over 50 miles per hour that exposed the fuel tank to forces well in
excess of what regulators required it to withstand.
“We’ve all stood on the side of the road changing a tire or
crossing the street, and at 55 miles an hour your hair is blowing and it’s
noisy. That’s a very severe collision,” Bell said. “This crash just overwhelmed
the structure of this vehicle.”
Bell disputed autopsy results that indicated Remington died
from the fire. He told jurors Remington had already died of a head injury from
the impact of the crash before the fire reached his booster seat.
Following the parties' opening statements, Butler played
deposition testimony given by Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne. Marchionne
reportedly met with then U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood in 2013
after Chrysler initially rejected a recall over Jeep fuel tanks. Following the
meeting the company said it would add rear tow hitches to 1.5 million vehicles,
a fix that the agency later deemed adequate.
Under rapid-fire questioning from Butler in an edited video
compilation of Marchionne’s testimony, the Fiat Chrysler chief was pressed on
the issue of how much responsibility the company has for the safety of
Chrysler’s vehicles. Italian automaker Fiat acquired Chrysler after the
American company declared bankruptcy in 2009.
Butler claimed Fiat Chrysler should have been more
forthcoming about the alleged danger from the rear-mounted fuel tanks after the
company was acquired, but Marchionne said the tank on the 1999 Jeep Grand
Cherokee doesn’t pose a public safety risk.
“Any accident is possible, but it’s not a safety defect,”
Marchionne said. Butler immediately responded that Marchionne lacked the
personal knowledge to make that assertion.
“People have done the work for me and have done what is necessary
for me to make that assertion,” Marchionne replied.
Fiat Chrysler spokesman Michael Palese expressed sympathy
for Remington's parents, but echoed Bell's arguments that the 1999 Jeep
Cherokee was not defectively designed.
“The energy level of the impact was substantially higher
than the applicable federal requirement for rear impacts, which the Jeep Grand
Cherokee met,” Palese said in a statement. “A thorough analysis of rear impact
crash data indicates that the 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee is no more likely to
experience fire as a result of a rear impact than peer vehicles.”
The trial before Judge J. Kevin Chason is expected to last
up to three weeks. Courtroom View Network will present a gavel-to-gavel
webcast of the proceedings.
The plaintiffs are represented by Jim Butler and David
Rohwedder of Butler Wooten & Fryhofer LLP, James Butler of Butler Tobin
LLC, George Floyd of Floyd & Kendrick LLC and attorney L. Catharine Cox.
The defendants are represented by M. Diane Owns, Terry
Brantley, Alicia Timm and Anandhi Rajan of Swift Currie McGhee & Hiers LLP,
Brian Bell, Anthony Monaco and Andrew Albright of Swanson Martin & Bell
LLP, Brian Westenberg and Sheila Jeffrey of Miller Canfield Paddock and Stone
PLC, Erika Jones of Mayer Brown LLP and by attorney Bruce W. Kirbo.
The case is James Bryan Walden and Lindsay Newcombe
Strickland, on behalf of Remington Cole Walden v. Chrysler Group LLC, case
number 12-CV-472, in the Superior Court of Decatur County in the State of
Georgia.