Ford Class Action Lawsuit Filed Over Unintended Accleration Problem

A class action lawsuit has been filed by Ford vehicle owners, alleging that the company sold cars that are prone to accelerate out of control, increasing the risk of auto accidents and serious injuries. 

The complaint was filed last week in federal court in West Virginia on behalf of owners of Ford Crown Victoria, Ford Escape, Ford Taurus, Ford Thunderbird and other vehicles that may be vulnerable to unintended acceleration, raising similar allegations to those brought in lawsuits filed against Toyota following recalls in 2009 and early 2010.

The Ford class action lawsuit was brought after the company issued a recall for more than 423,000 Ford Escape vehicles last summer, due to problems with the throttle becoming stuck, leading to unintended acceleration.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) uncovered at least 68 reports of alleged incidents where the throttle got stuck open among Ford Escape drivers, including at least one report that resulted in a fatal crash in January.

Ford has indicated that the acceleration problems reported were individual incidents, involving issues with floor mats or malfunctions in specific vehicles. The auto maker has denied that there is an overall design problem and indicates that it has addressed problems with the NHTSA.

The case is similar to the massive Toyota recalls issued several years ago, which have resulted in hundreds of lawsuits brought on behalf of vehicle owners. Toyota has agreed to pay $1.4 billion to settle unintended acceleration lawsuits. However, that amount did not address personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits filed against the company.

All lawsuits over the Toyota recalls have been centralized and consolidated under Judge James V. Selna for pretrial proceedings in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Santa Ana as part of a multidistrict litigation (MDL). Toyota was also fined $66.2 million by the NHTSA for failing to address the problems in a prompt manner, and also paid investors $25.5 million to settle claims that the company tried to conceal the problem, resulting in inflated stock value.

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