Ford Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

W.Va. Appeals Court Reverses $7M Jury Award In Ford Lawsuit

An appeals court in West Virginia on Friday reversed a $7 million award in a product liability lawsuit against the Ford Motor Co. to the family of a woman who died when her Ford Mustang was involved in a fiery crash.

The West Virginia Intermediate Court of Appeals sent the case back to Kanawha County Circuit Court for a new trial.

A jury had found that Ford was 99% at fault for the 2016 death of Breanna Bumgarner and awarded the money last year to her Raleigh County family.

Court records show that Bumgarner’s 2014 Mustang was hit by a pickup truck that had crossed the center line on U.S. Route 33 near Spencer in Roane County. The Mustang caught fire and Bumgarner was trapped in the vehicle. The lawsuit also named the 16-year-old driver of the other vehicle and her parents as defendants.

The plaintiff’s attorneys had argued that the Mustang’s brake fluid reservoir was not sufficiently protected from the crash and it led to the fire. The jury found that the reservoir’s design was not safe enough in preventing leakage in the accident.

The appeals court sided with Ford’s contention that negligent design claims require proof of a reasonable alternative design for establishing the existence of a defect, and that the jury should have been properly instructed on the requirement.

GM Union Agreement Could Put Martinsburg Facility Back To Work

Though it wasn’t official Monday, various news organizations reported a tentative agreement between GM and the United Auto Workers.

A tentative agreement between General Motors and its workers union could put an Eastern Panhandle facility back to work.

GM and the United Auto Workers reached a tentative deal on Monday to end a nearly six week strike that idled a distribution center in Martinsburg.

The GM deal is expected to be similar to ones reached with Ford and Stellantis, the parent company of Chrysler.

About 100 employees in Martinsburg have been part of the strike for five weeks.

Workers at all three companies would have to ratify any agreement, which is expected to include a pay increase and more generous retirement contributions.

GM’s largest plant in North America, in Spring Hill, Tennessee, joined the strike on Saturday.

Auto Workers Strike Expands To West Virginia GM Distribution Center

Workers at the General Motors distribution center in Martinsburg walked off the job on Friday.

They were among 38 GM and Stellantis distribution centers in 20 states that joined the United Auto Workers union’s strike at GM, Ford and Stellantis assembly plants.

Stellantis is the parent company of Chrysler. The Martinsburg center employs about 100 workers. Last week, 13,000 workers walked off the job. On Friday, 5,600 joined the effort.

The companies say they’ve laid off another 6,000 workers as a result of the shutdowns.

Among other changes, the UAW seeks a 36% increase in wages over four years. The union also wants a 32-hour workweek for 40 hours of pay and to restore traditional pension plans for newer workers.

The union cites record profits and executives making tens of millions of dollars in compensation. The companies say they face new costs in the transition from conventional cars and trucks to electric vehicles.

In a statement, GM spokeswoman Tara Stewart Kuhnen, called the move “unnecessary” and accused the UAW of manipulating the bargaining process.

Still, she said, the company “will continue to bargain in good faith with the union to reach an agreement as quickly as possible.”

A Stellantis site in Winchester, Virginia, also joined the picket lines on Friday.

Ford Found Liable In Lawsuit In W.Va. Woman's Death

A jury in West Virginia has awarded $7 million in a product liability lawsuit against Ford Motor Co. to the family of a woman who died when her Mustang was involved in a fiery crash.

A Kanawha County jury made the award this week to the Raleigh County family of Breanna Bumgarner. The jury found Ford was 99% at fault for Bumgarner’s death, the Charleston Gazette-Mail reported.

Ford spokesman Ian Thibodeau said the company will review its options for appealing the verdict.

According to the lawsuit filed by the administrator of Bumgarner’s estate, Bumgarner’s 2014 Ford Mustang was hit by a pickup truck that had crossed the center line along U.S. Route 33 near Spencer in March 2016. The Mustang caught fire and Bumgarner was trapped in the vehicle. The lawsuit also named the driver of the other vehicle and her parents.

The plaintiff’s attorneys had argued that the Mustang’s brake fluid reservoir was not sufficiently protected from the crash and it led to the fire. The jury found the reservoir’s design was not safe enough in preventing leakage in the accident.

Ohio Valley Automakers Hit Brakes To Limit Coronavirus Transmission

Automakers across the Ohio Valley are temporarily closing their plants in response to the coronavirus pandemic. That includes the big three U.S. automakers — Ford, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler — and Toyota.

In a release, GM said it will be suspending manufacturing in North America due to market conditions and to deep clean facilities. The closures are expected to last until about the end of the month. From there production will be re-evaluated on a week-to-week basis.

United Auto Workers President Rory Gamble agreed with the GM decision, saying in the statement that the suspension of work will help protect the health and safety of the union’s members. “This will give us time to review best practices and to prevent the spread of this disease,” Gamble said.

Ford, which operates six manufacturing facilities in the Ohio Valley, is also suspending operation until about the end of the month.

Todd Dunn, president of UAW Local 862 in Kentucky, said Ford is working on a long-term plan for workers to practice social distancing and keep workers safe.

Kentucky is home to GM’s Corvette plant in Bowling Green, which employs about 1,400 people, and a Ford facility in Louisville which employs about 4,000 people assembling the Ford Escape and Lincoln Corsair. Dunn said he supports the decision to temporarily shut down.

“They’re going to come in and try to clean as much as possible, deep clean areas,” he said. “Hard part is you can’t get everything.”

Toyota said in a statement that it will temporarily suspend production at all of its plants in North America from March 23rd to the 24th.

Toyota’s facility in Georgetown, Kentucky, is Toyota’s largest vehicle manufacturing plant in the world, and employs more than 8,000 people. The company also has a facility in Putnam County, West Virginia, which employs about 550 people. The manufacturing facility in Georgetown, Kentucky will also cancel Saturday production.

The temporary suspension of production will likely have significant ripple effects well beyond those directly employed, as dozens of regional companies supply parts and services for the automakers.

Ford Says Some Rangers Should be Parked Due to Air Bag Death

Ford is telling owners of about 2,900 Ranger small pickup trucks not to drive them after finding out that an exploding Takata air bag inflator killed a Ranger driver in West Virginia.

The death occurred July 1 in West Virginia, and Ford said it found out about it in December. After some investigation, the company determined that the truck’s inflator was made on the same day as one that exploded and killed a South Carolina man driving a Ranger in 2016. So the company issued the urgent new recall for Rangers with inflators made on the same day.

“We take this matter very seriously and are advising owners of these specific 2006 Ford Rangers to stop driving their vehicles so dealers can make repairs immediately,” Ford said in a statement Thursday.

Dealers will repair the trucks at owners’ homes or tow them to dealerships for the work, spokeswoman Elizabeth Weigandt said. The company also will offer loaner vehicles if needed.

“It’s critical that this message reaches all affected owners,” the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a statement. “It is extremely important that all high-risk air bags are tracked down and replaced immediately.”

The West Virginia death is the second involving a Ranger and the 21st worldwide caused by Takata inflators.

The inflators, which use ammonium nitrate as a propellant, can explode with too much force, blowing apart a metal canister and spewing shrapnel. The problem touched off the largest string of auto recalls in U.S. history and forced Takata into bankruptcy. More than 180 people have been injured.

Ford issued a new recall for the 2,900 Rangers in the U.S. and Canada.

Weigandt said she didn’t know any details about the West Virginia death other than Ford was notified about it Dec. 22 and the company inspected the vehicle on Dec. 27. The West Virginia Ranger was covered by a previous recall that came after the South Carolina death, but Weigandt said it issued a new recall because of the immediate danger from this lot of inflators.

In January of 2016, Ford recalled about 391,000 Rangers in the U.S. and Canada from the 2004 to 2006 model years to replace the driver’s air bag inflators. The recall came after the government announced that Joel Knight, 52, of Kershaw, South Carolina, was killed by an inflator. Knight was hit in the neck by metal shrapnel after his 2006 Ranger hit a cow in the road and struck a fence.