Was Ford to Blame in the Pinto Case?.
I am going to discuss with you a case that has many factors to it. You have to take into consideration both the Pros and Cons to this case for it will make your decision on this matter. The author of the Pros side is an award winning investigative journalist named Mark Dowie. He alleges that Ford Motor Company put an unsafe car out on the market named the Pinto. Also claiming that Ford new that the vehicle was and unsafe car. On the other side we have a Mr. James Neal chief attorney for Ford Motor Company defending its client saying that it was not the fault of the Frod Company causing the many deaths of people out there, but it was the responsibility of the other drivers that struck the Pinto.
Facts that where presented by the journalist where as follows, one was that Ford had rushed a car out on to the market named the Pinto and without properly testing the vehicle, which suffered many problems. It had a very bad fuel system that would crack or break when the Pinto was hit in a rear-end collision. Ford knew about the situation and still put the car out on the market to compete with the other subcompact vehicles on the market. The other was that Ford could have avoided this by simply placing an inexpensive light-weight plastic baffle that was placed between the front of the gas tank and the differential, so the four bolts that where in the differential would not break thought the gas tank. This lightweight part called the baffle only cost Ford one dollar.
Ford just wanted to compete with the other competitors out there rather thinking about the safety of the consumer driving the vehicle. Now the facts that where presented by the attorney for the Ford Company where that the driver of the van that weighted over 4,000 pounds was under the influence of alcohol and marijuana which he may or may not of been smoking at the time of the accident. The attorney for Ford was trying to make a point that there or not it was the Pinto that was struck by the van that weighted over 4,000 pounds the vehicle would of also burst into flames.
