Columbus, Ga. — In a landmark legal battle that underscored ongoing concerns about vehicle safety, a federal jury in Columbus handed down a multibillion-dollar verdict against auto giant Ford, assigning significant blame for a fatal accident that claimed the lives of a Georgia couple. The jury ruled on Thursday that weak roof construction in Ford’s “Super Duty” trucks contributed to the deaths of Herman Mills, 74, and Debra Mills, 64.
The accident occurred on August 22, 2022, when Debra Mills, with her husband Herman as a passenger, lost control of their 2015 Ford F250 after striking a driveway drainage culvert in Decatur County. The vehicle went airborne and rolled over, resulting in the roof collapsing into the passenger compartment despite only a partial roll, as stated by James E. Butler, the lead attorney for the Mills family.
The tragic crash led to the immediate death of Debra Mills at the scene while Herman Mills succumbed to his injuries later in a Florida hospital after it took nearly half an hour for first responders to extract him from the wreckage. In response to their deaths, the children of the couple, James “Dusty” Brogdon, Ronald “Rusty” Brogdon, and Jason Mills, initiated a lawsuit against Ford blaming the structural integrity of the vehicle’s roof.
During the court proceedings, attorneys for the Mills family argued that the roofs of Ford’s “Super Duty” models ranging from 1999 to 2016 were markedly weaker than those found in the company’s F150 series. James E. Butler reiterated their stance, highlighting that Ford had been aware of the risks associated with these weaker roofs for over two decades but failed to properly address or rectify the hazards.
Ford, on its part, countered these claims, suggesting instead that the deformation of the vehicle’s roof during the accident was not the cause of the couple’s fatalities. A spokesperson from Ford described the jury’s verdict as excessively severe and inconsistent with the evidence presented. The company had also posited that Debra Mills suffered a cardiac event, which led to the crash.
Further underscored by the verdict, the jury attributed 85% of the liability to Ford, with the remainder assigned to Debra Mills. This led to a two-phase damage award where the jury initially allocated $30.5 million in compensatory damages on Thursday before assigning a punitive figure of $2.5 billion the following day.
This legal action comes not long after another Ford-related verdict where a Gwinnett County jury awarded $1.7 billion to the family of Voncile and Melvin Hill, whose Ford F250 also rolled in a fatal 2014 accident in Sumter County. Nonetheless, state appeals later nullified this verdict.
The substantial payouts emerge amidst moves by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp advocating for significant reforms in the state’s legal system. Kemp’s proposals aim to address the escalating size of jury awards, which he deems excessive.
These court proceedings, and the subsequent verdicts not only shed light on potential enduring safety issues with certain Ford models but also contribute to the broader discourse on corporate accountability and consumer safety in the automotive industry.
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