Gwinnett County, Georgia — Ford is appealing a court decision ordering them to pay the equivalent of $2.1 billion Canadian, saying their Super Duty F-250 pickups should bear no blame in the nearly 80 accidents where the truck’s roof was crushed in rollover collisions, often resulting in death or injuries.
According to the Guardian, jurors in Gwinnett County returned a verdict in a court case sparked by two children whose parents died in a rollover accident, saying that the roofs were dangerously defective and played a part in the death of their parents. The jury allocated 70 percent of the blame to Ford and 30 percent with an automotive service chain that installed wrong-sized tires on the truck.
According to family attorneys and the jury, Ford sold 5.2 million Super Duty trucks with roofs that could crush people in rollover accidents, with the flaw being found in Super Duty models between 1999 and 2016.
According to the law firm defending the family, their lawyers submitted evidence of nearly 80 similar rollover wrecks where truck roofs were crushed and killed or injured their passengers or driver.
“While our sympathies go out to the Hill family, we do not believe the verdict is supported by the evidence, and we plan to appeal,” Ford said in a statement to the Associated Press on Sunday.