Of immediate concern, a guilty verdict could have affected 40 pending civil cases nationwide and resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in punitive damage awards. At stake was much more than the maximum penalty of $30,000 in fines. Why? Because it led to an unprecedented court case in which the prosecution brought charges of reckless homicide against the Ford Motor Co.the first time that a corporation had been charged with criminal conduct, and the charge was not negligence but murder.

This particular accident, however, resulted in more media attention than any other auto accident in U.S. By the time of the accident, the car had been the subject of a great deal of public outcry and debate about its safety, especially its susceptibility to fire in low-speed rear-end collisions.

They were merely the latest in a long list of people to burn to death in accidents involving the Pinto, which Ford had begun selling in 1970. After three attempts, Lynn Maries sister, 18-year-old Judy Ann, was dragged out alive from the drivers seat, but died in agony hours later in the hospital. Two passengers, Lynn Marie Ulrich, 16, and her cousin, Donna Ulrich, 18, were trapped inside the inferno and burned to death. The Pintos fuel tank ruptured and the car exploded in flames. Driving a 1973 Ford Pinto to their church volleyball practice in Goshen, Indiana, they were struck from behind by a Chevrolet van. On August 10, 1978, three teenage girls died horribly in an automobile accident.

Ford pinto case