5 years ago
By Kyle Meenan First Coast News
JACKSONVILLE, FL -- On Friday, a Jacksonville jury awarded paraplegic Tami Martin nearly 17-million dollars in a case against the Ford Motor Company. The 34-year old Martin says Ford can cut that settlement in half if they don't file an appeal, and if they agree to warn future drivers of the danger that left her a paraplegic in a wheelchair.
It happened with a crash of the Martin's Ford Aerostar minivan back in 1999. Tami's mother, Havana, was driving her back to Gainseville where Tami was a student.
Tami was asleep in the passenger seat. She was wearing her seatbelt, but her seat was reclined backwards at the moment of impact. They weren't going very fast.
"About 30-miles-per-hour, and had my seat not been back in the reclining position, I would have walked away like my mother did," said Martin.
Instead, Tami Martin submarined on impact, meaning her body started sliding forward on the seat, then her upper body flipped up and over the seat belt with such force, one of her vertebrae was damaged, along with her spinal cord.
While her mother walked away unharmed, the crash left Tami without use of her lower extremities. With her attorneys from the Jacksonville Law Firm of Terrell Hogan, she sued the Ford Motor Company.
"Reclining your seat make the seatbelt useless, and it makes the safety belt actually the instrument that will either harm you, or kill you," said Attorney Angelo Patacca.
In court, Patacca presented evidence alleging Ford was aware of the dangers of riding in a reclined seat, but failed to adequately protect it's customers through proper warnings.
Martin's lawyers pointed to a 1988 Letter from the National Transportation Safety Board warning about the danger of riding reclined, and a Ford Truck commercial which aired earlier in 2005 showing a passenger riding in a Ford truck with his seat reclined and his cowboy boots up on the dashboard.
The jury sided with the plaintiffs, awarding Tami Martin and her attorneys $16,947,444.85 dollars.
Tami Martin now says if Ford doesn't appeal the verdict, and starts putting warning stickers on every newly manufactured vehicle it sells, she'll agree to cut the settlement in half, turning down more than $8-million dollars.
"I will be willing to accept half the verdict I was awarded. It is that important to me to save other lives," said Martin.
She says she's accomplished every goal she's ever set for herself, and there are more to come.
"Walking again will be the hardest one, but getting this passed, making sure no other child, adult, infant, is paralyzed or killed because they have their seat back while the car is in motion is a fight that I know I can see the end to."
Ford Motor Company has not commented about the offer to reduce the jury award, but had released a statement shortly after the jury's verdict was released.
In a written e-mail to First Coast News, Kathleen Vokes of Ford wrote:
"This was a tragic accident caused when the driver fell asleep at the wheel and drove into a parked ambulance. The air bag deployed as it should have, but the passenger was reclined in her seat with her feet resting on the dashboard. The jury's finding that Ford did not adequately warn against riding in this position is simply incorrect. We expect this verdict will be reversed on appeal."
First Coast News