Traumatic Brain Injury Verdicts: McVey v. Ford Motor Company

McVEY v. FORD MOTOR COMPANY

RESULT: Total of $ 5,017,000 (past medical costs, $ 309,000; present value of future medical and life care costs, $ 4,292,000; present value of future wage loss, $ 416,000).

STATE: New Jersey

INJURY: Traumatic Brain Injury from compound depressed comminuted skull fracture with multiple intracranial hemorrhages resulting in permanent cognitive and behavioral deficits, right hemiparesis, and field of vision loss to the right eye.

She was in a coma for one month and was hospitalized for three months.

SUMMARY: On June 22, 1995, Kelly McVey sustained traumatic brain injuries in a single-vehicle accident in Edison, New Jersey. The accident occurred while Kelly McVey's grandfather was operating a 1995 Ford Taurus station wagon on a residential road at night while returning from a church carnival. There were three passengers in the vehicle, including 10-year-old Kelly McVey who was in the right rear passenger seat. According to the driver, he was run off the road by a phantom driver and struck a telephone pole with the right front corner of the vehicle at approximately 20 miles per hour. The driver and two of the passengers sustained minor injuries. Kelly McVey, however, struck the right side of her head on the front seat belt turning loop (D-ring) mounted on the post between the front and rear doors (B-pillar), which resulted in a compound depressed comminuted skull fracture with multiple intracranial hemorrhages.

Plaintiffs alleged the Ford Taurus was defective because the emergency locking retractor on the seat belt system Kelly was wearing at the time of the accident "skip locked" and failed to restrain her. Plaintiffs also alleged the Ford Taurus was defective because it did not have adequate rear seat strength or a restraining device to prevent a wheelchair in the cargo area from breaking the right rear seat back and contributing to Kelly McVey's movement into the door post.

Defendant contended that the Ford Taurus was not defective because the restraint system and seat back met or exceeded Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. Defendant specifically contended the retractor did not "skip lock" and that Kelly McVey was wearing the lap belt portion of the restraint system with the shoulder belt portion placed behind her back and was sitting towards the front of the seat. Defendant also contended that the failure of the seat back could not have contributed to Kelly's movement because she would have moved forward into the door post from the forces of the accident before the wheelchair struck the seat back and broke a hinge pin.

• Sieck v General Motors Corp.
• Kinahan, Et Al. v Haggart, Et Al.
• David & Rebecca Martin v. Union Pacific Railroad & Dannie Dolan
• Bo Wei, Et Al. v. Mack-Cali Corp., Et Al.
• McVey v. Ford Motor Company
• Gregory Sutton v. E.G. Middleton, Inc. and Simon R. Bettinger

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