THE PINTO FIRE CASE INCIDENT
The Pinto fire case incident is probably one of the most controversial car accidents in the world that has become a continuing series of investigation in the last 70’s. As early as 1972 there was a record of explosions from Pinto from collisions using this car model and most of the victims have suffered injuries from high impact and some are burned into death and cars are devastated and reports shows that the cars safety locks and doors are sometimes cannot be opened and jammed. According to the investigators it would cost about $200,000 US dollars and using an estimated of 18 up to 27 deaths in the later years while gas tanks would cost $137,000 while the overall possible liability of Ford would amount to $49 million US dollars.
But Ford and their engineers says during the 1970’s that they have conducted collision test and it has been successful and that the cars are prototyped to secured and didn’t result in fire and during the collision test, there were no gas spills and the collision was fully strong. This has been their defense to the incidents. There were another several test to prove its worth they have decreased their liabilities down to 3.5 millions on appeal and defense that has been a real wake-up call on their company. They have already settled their pending cases as much in an out of court settlement so the real records of payment cannot be reported.
But according to the independent investigators Mother Jones proved that during investigations that Pinto reveals that the rear end would buckle up to the back seat if the speed would ran into 30 miles per hour the gas tank will always ruptured so it really needs a redesign. This is not usually the case in their Capri model that even if it runs in 50 or 60 miles per hour it would still withstand the pressure to save lives of hundreds of their customers. Definitely safety has not been included n the design and according to the green book presented by Ford Pinto Engineers, this is the most confidential manual that should be taken consideration it covers the engineers production plan.
A detailed and step by step production workflow has been in the green book detailing all its features and the product objective shows, clear product quality and superiority that focuses on the design, appearance, comfort and other physical features of the Pinto cars. But they have also noticed in the green book about the safety standard features in the article for consideration and so this has been the missing link. Safety does not sell according to them maybe it has been designed mostly by salespeople and not just engineers that they have penetrated to sell well.
But the hazard does not stop there, during the 1978 the California jury awarded the $128 million dollars lawsuit resulting in the accidents. During this time the Department of Transportation have lately studied the fire safety related incident that they have call on the attention of Ford executives, they have issued a recall for 1.5 million Pinto models including Sedan, Bobcat and other Ford Pinto models for a more serious safety repair although it should have been done earlier so as to prevent all the cases they have faced and struggled into.
They have changed and reinvent the fuel tank filler to be extended deeper so that it will be more resistant to a collision. They have also used various materials a combination of metal sheets and plastic as a rear shock absorber. They have attempted to restore the trust of their clients by innovating their cars and services and basically they have run out of law suits after the reinvention but Ford has also been accused in Indiana in 1979 for a million dollar suit that made them decide to stop the production of the Ford Pinto car models five months after the trials.
During those times it was only the law suits they have cared about and nothing more. Upon reflecting the incidents in our present time; car distributors, customers especially engineers have so much to learn from this incidents that they have appreciated the exclusivity and the production of cars should be highly restricted to a more serious and safety works rather than revenue, cost analysis has been calculated and bestowed upon quality not just quantity. Other companies especially Honda Motors learned so much from Ford Fire case incidents that they have immediately recalled thousands of their cars for innovation as of today September 5, 2011 for a repair and safety analysis and accident prevention maintenance.
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