Friday, March 18, 2005

Ford and Mazda ordered to pay $27 million in crash death

Associated Press

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CHICAGO - A Cook County jury has awarded the family of a south suburban Chicago man $27 million after finding a faulty driver's seat caused his death in an accident five years ago.

The jury on Wednesday ordered Ford Motor Co. and Mazda Motor Corp., the two companies that built the 1996 Ford Escort LX, to pay damages to James Mikolajczyk's family.

The 46-year-old South Holland resident was killed at an intersection on Chicago's southeast side in February 2000 after his Escort was rear-ended by a Cadillac that was estimated to be traveling at 60 mph.

The lawsuit blamed the Escort's front-seat design as the cause of his death.

According to Bruce Pfaff, the plaintiffs' attorney, the accident's impact bent the driver's seat backward and allowed Mikolajczyk to slide out from under his seat and slam headfirst into the rear portion of the passenger compartment.

The Escort's rear seats, Pfaff said, were more durable and prevented other family members riding in the car from suffering serious injuries in the crash.

Ford spokeswoman Kathleen Vokes said the Escort's front seat meets all federal guidelines and "there's no one, simple engineering solution" to the problems the plaintiffs said caused the death.

A message seeking comment was left Thursday with a Mazda spokesman.

Mikolajczyk never regained consciousness after the accident and died three days later.

William Timberlake, 58, the driver of the Cadillac, was convicted of drunken driving and reckless homicide and was sentenced to six years in prison. Illinois Department of Corrections records show Timberlake is scheduled to be paroled in September.