Orlando, FL – (November 12, 2003) – The Newsome Law Firm, received a $3.3 million verdict on behalf of a 29-year-old Ft. Lauderdale woman’s son after she was killed in a low speed accident by a defective air bag in a 1996 Ford Taurus. The family’s attorneys contended that the air bag system for the 1996 Ford Taurus was defectively designed to deploy in crashes under 10 miles per hour where an air bag was not needed. Ford’s own experts conceded that the air bag caused the fatal chest injuries sustained by Ms. Mayling Semidey on March 11, 2000, and that she would have sustained only minor injuries if the air bag had not deployed.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has investigated numerous low speed air bag-induced fatalities involving first generation air bags installed in cars throughout the 1990’s, primarily involving small-statured women drivers who are close to the air bag when it deploys, and small children who ride in the front seat. However, little attention has been given to the risk to other drivers like Mayling Semidey, who was 5’9” and weighed 150 lbs., which is above average stature, and who, an eyewitness said, was wearing a seat belt.

Reconstruction of the March 11, 2000 crash by both sides revealed that the driver, Ms. Semidey, struck a concrete retaining wall while entering the Florida Turnpike at a speed equivalent to a 9 mile per hour frontal impact. Ms. Semidey, a single mother of a three-year-old son, was on her way home from an errand when the low speed accident occurred.

Ford Motor Company designed the subject 1996 Ford Taurus to incorporate an air bag that, in frontal crashes, must deploy at speeds of 14 miles per hour or greater, and must not deploy at speeds of 8 miles per hour or less. At the estimated speed of 9 miles per hour, the air bag was designed to deploy in some incidents, and not in others. The family’s attorneys said that designing the air bags to deploy below 10 miles per hour exposed Ms. Semidey to an unreasonable risk. The jury agreed, finding the air bag system for the 1996 Ford Taurus to be defective, and finding Ford Motor Company negligent for causing the death of Ms. Semidey.

The attorney for the Plaintiff was Richard Newsome of the Newsome Law Firm. Ford was represented by Frank McDonald of the Carlton, Fields law firm.

The Newsome Law Firm is located in Orlando, Florida and represents consumers in personal injury and wrongful death cases with an emphasis on litigating products liability cases throughout the United States.

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