Attorneys representing a proposed class of Ford Super Duty truck owners say that they have evidence that suggests that Ford “repeatedly” degraded materials in those vehicles to deadly effect in order to cut costs.
“When the public looks at Ford’s history of subtle, yet impactful and plentiful design choices over the decades it has made these trucks, a single storyline is clear: Ford has repeatedly chosen to degrade the structural capacity and therefore safety of its trucks, again and again, for sake of cost savings,” said Steve Berman, Hagens Berman co-founder and managing partner, in a statement. “A read of Ford’s choices is a redundant tale of deletions and downgage of steel, reducing the thickness of essential components of the truck cab.”
In the document, lawyers claim that Ford deleted a number of strengthening parts around the windshield, and downgaged the steel in the roof bows, the door vertical beams, and the A-pillar.
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They further claim that Ford degraded the material in a structural pillar from Boron steel (a high strength material) to mild steel. Now, in the updated lawsuit, they claim that Ford had no test results to show what how severely the cuts would impact rollover protection.
The strength of these parts and the rollover safety of Ford Super Duty pickup trucks built between 1999 and 2016 is at the heart of the class-action lawsuit, which claims that the weak roof design of the trucks led to the collapse of the roof and grave injuries for many owners.
The suit follows a $1.7 billion verdict against Ford in a wrongful death case relating to the roof strength of Ford F-250s. The case was brought to court in Georgia by the children of Kim and Adam Hill, who died at the wheel of one of the trucks.
Ford is appealing the case and argued during the trial that it made no irresponsible decisions to willfully put customers at risk.
The lawyers at Hagens Berman now say, however, that 162 lawsuits and 83 incidents of crushed roofs have been identified involving the 1999-2016 Super Duty pickup trucks and invites owners and lessees to join its class action case, which seeks repayment for damages, including loss of vehicle value and out-of-pocket costs.
“Ford has clearly failed its customers and has failed the public in living up to the basic level of responsibility that a company must adhere to when selling products to the public,” Berman said.
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