0:00:00.000,0:00:01.335
STRIKER: Whatcha looking at?

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WOMAN: The Pinto.

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STRIKER: I like it. My kind of car.

0:00:06.150,0:00:06.945
WOMAN: Oh really?

0:00:06.945,0:00:10.185
STRIKER: Sub-compact. Lots of trunk space. What's the price?

0:00:10.185,0:00:12.570
WOMAN: Under 2,000 dollars.

0:00:12.570,0:00:12.720
STRIKER:Huh?

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WOMAN: In 1971.

0:00:14.070,0:00:15.705
STRIKER: Oh that makes sense.

0:00:15.705,0:00:17.190
Still a good deal though.

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But why is it here in the law museum?

0:00:19.980,0:00:24.855
WOMAN: The Pinto was at the center of a very important trial in 1979,

0:00:24.855,0:00:27.600
State of Indiana v. Ford Motor Company.

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This was the first time an American corporation was

0:00:30.600,0:00:34.015
criminally prosecuted and the whole country was watching.

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STRIKER: Why?

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WOMAN: Everybody wanted to see if a company could be

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punished criminally for creating a product,

0:00:40.335,0:00:43.380
in this case, an automobile that was unsafe.

0:00:43.380,0:00:44.690
STRIKER: Yipes!

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STRIKER: So what was wrong with the Pinto?

0:00:58.710,0:01:03.085
WOMAN: Well, the Pinto was created to satisfy two main objectives.

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Lee Iacocca, who was executive vice president of the Ford Motor Company,

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tasked his engineers with creating a car that would weigh less

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than 2,000 pounds and cost less than 2,000 dollars.

0:01:16.625,0:01:20.990
German and Japanese manufacturers were making lots of money producing

0:01:20.990,0:01:25.975
sub-compact cars and Ford Motor Company wanted in on the action.

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STRIKER: What's wrong with that?

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WOMAN: Well, nothing but I haven't finished the story.

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Ford was in a hurry to introduce their car into the market so they

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accelerated their production time from their usual 43 months to 25 months.

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Compromises were made.

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Serious risks associated with the placement of

0:01:47.270,0:01:53.325
the Pintos fuel tanks were ignored despite crash tests resulting in flames.

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STRIKER: Flames?

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WOMAN: Yes, flames.

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The rush design placed the fuel tank behind

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the rear axle instead of over it like most sub-compact cars,

0:02:03.545,0:02:06.980
this left only 9 or 10 inches of crush space.

0:02:06.980,0:02:11.030
Other design flaws included a thin strip of chrome for

0:02:11.030,0:02:15.245
a bumper and a lack of reinforcement around the fuel tank.

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The results? At speeds over 25 miles per hour,

0:02:19.070,0:02:24.455
the fuel tank ruptured every time it experienced a rear impact.

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STRIKER: Yipes! That looks deadly.

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WOMAN: It was.

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STRIKER: Couldn't they fix it?

0:02:28.820,0:02:31.865
WOMAN: They certainly could have improved the situation.

0:02:31.865,0:02:33.890
Engineers at Ford came up with

0:02:33.890,0:02:38.720
several modifications to significantly improve the safety of the vehicle.

0:02:38.720,0:02:40.355
STRIKER: So they did make it better?

0:02:40.355,0:02:40.918
WOMAN: No.

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STRIKER: How come?

0:02:41.740,0:02:47.772
WOMAN: Well, despite the cost being only 11 dollars per car, Ford declined.

0:02:47.772,0:02:48.355
STRIKER: Why?

0:02:48.355,0:02:49.825
WOMAN: It's hard to say.

0:02:49.825,0:02:53.930
However, we can gain some insight into the corporate mentality

0:02:53.930,0:02:58.055
at Ford from an internal report regarding safety,

0:02:58.055,0:03:00.010
which was leaked to the media.

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STRIKER: What did it say?

0:03:01.140,0:03:04.280
WOMAN: The document, nicknamed the Pinto Memo,

0:03:04.280,0:03:07.430
was created by several analysts at Ford.

0:03:07.430,0:03:12.590
It compared the cost of making safety improvements in advance with the cost

0:03:12.590,0:03:18.100
Ford would most likely incur through death and injury lawsuits and lost vehicles.

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STRIKER: What?

0:03:19.035,0:03:22.350
WOMAN: It's called a cost-benefit analysis.

0:03:22.350,0:03:26.510
Ford estimated that if they did not fix the safety issues,

0:03:26.510,0:03:29.270
there would be 180 deaths,

0:03:29.270,0:03:34.010
180 injuries, and 2,100 vehicles destroyed.

0:03:34.010,0:03:39.575
They even determined a value for each loss, $200,000 per death,

0:03:39.575,0:03:42.545
$67,000 per burn injury,

0:03:42.545,0:03:45.410
and $700 per lost vehicle,

0:03:45.410,0:03:49.550
which was the average resale value of a Pinto at that time.

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STRIKER: That's crazy.

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WOMAN: The public especially didn't appreciate their $200,000 valuation of a human life.

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STRIKER: Uncool.

0:03:58.415,0:04:03.350
WOMAN: They compared these costs to those associated with redesigning and installing

0:04:03.350,0:04:08.690
better safety features on the 12.5 million cars they expected to sell.

0:04:08.690,0:04:11.780
The cost was only $11 per vehicle.

0:04:11.780,0:04:12.790
STRIKER: And the result?

0:04:12.790,0:04:17.780
WOMAN: They determined it will cost the company approximately $49 million in

0:04:17.780,0:04:22.820
lawsuits and lost vehicles to sell the Pinto as it was already designed,

0:04:22.820,0:04:24.290
or it would cost

0:04:24.290,0:04:32.180
approximately $137 million to redesign and improve the safety defect in advance.

0:04:32.180,0:04:34.355
STRIKER: What did they decide to do?

0:04:34.355,0:04:35.780
WOMAN: What do you think?

0:04:35.780,0:04:37.010
STRIKER: Keep the money?

0:04:37.010,0:04:41.590
WOMAN: Yep, they save the money and ignored the safety risk.

0:04:41.590,0:04:42.975
STRIKER: What happened?

0:04:42.975,0:04:48.760
WOMAN: An estimated 27 people were killed in rear-end collisions involving the Pinto.

0:04:48.760,0:04:53.270
Upon impact, the fuel tank would puncture and explode,

0:04:53.270,0:04:57.905
often sending fuel into the driver's compartment which would then ignite.

0:04:57.905,0:04:59.285
STRIKER: That's terrible.

0:04:59.285,0:05:02.285
WOMAN: In one of the few cases that made it to trial,

0:05:02.285,0:05:08.315
Grimshaw versus Ford, a California jury awarded a boy who had been badly burned,

0:05:08.315,0:05:13.790
127 million dollars, 125 million of which was for

0:05:13.790,0:05:19.730
punitive damages to punish Ford for its decision to elevate profits over human life.

0:05:19.730,0:05:25.445
Although the judge subsequently reduced the punitive damages to 3.5 million,

0:05:25.445,0:05:30.440
the unexpectedly high amount sent the Ford Motor Company scrambling.

0:05:30.440,0:05:32.320
STRIKER: Scrambling to do what?

0:05:32.320,0:05:37.130
WOMAN: To settle as many of their pending cases as possible out of court.

0:05:37.130,0:05:38.675
STRIKER: How many cases were there?

0:05:38.675,0:05:42.500
WOMAN: Ford was involved in dozens of cases related to the Pinto.

0:05:42.500,0:05:46.910
However, their public image was suffering more than their bank account.

0:05:46.910,0:05:52.820
Here's an opinion given by a California Appellate Court regarding the Ford Motor Company.

0:05:52.820,0:05:58.100
STRIKER: "Ford decided to defer correction of the Pinto's shortcomings by engaging in

0:05:58.100,0:06:04.405
a cost-benefit analysis balancing human lives and limbs against corporate profits.

0:06:04.405,0:06:07.400
Ford's institutional mentality was shown to

0:06:07.400,0:06:10.610
be one of callous indifference to public safety.

0:06:10.610,0:06:15.110
There was substantial evidence that Ford's conduct constituted

0:06:15.110,0:06:21.200
conscious disregard of the probability of injury to members of the consuming public.

0:06:21.200,0:06:25.960
The conduct of Ford's management was reprehensible in the extreme.

0:06:25.960,0:06:29.240
It exhibited a conscious and callous disregard of

0:06:29.240,0:06:33.890
public safety in order to maximize corporate profits."

0:06:33.890,0:06:35.630
Harsh words.

0:06:35.630,0:06:37.945
WOMAN: It was a disaster.

0:06:37.945,0:06:42.770
In 1976, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

0:06:42.770,0:06:46.460
finally introduced rear impact safety regulations.

0:06:46.460,0:06:51.505
Ford complied with the standards on their new 1977 Pinto model.

0:06:51.505,0:06:56.780
However, the NHTSA also announced that a safety defect existed in

0:06:56.780,0:07:03.640
the fuel systems of all Pintos manufactured between 1971 and 1976.

0:07:03.640,0:07:09.290
Ford was forced to recall and repair 1.5 million cars.

0:07:09.290,0:07:12.815
STRIKER: But what about those criminal charges you mentioned earlier?

0:07:12.815,0:07:14.360
WOMAN: Oh yes. That's right.

0:07:14.360,0:07:20.045
Prior to 1978, Ford had only been sued for monetary damages.

0:07:20.045,0:07:24.605
However, that changed on August 10, 1978,

0:07:24.605,0:07:32.405
when three teenage girls were driving in a 1973 Pinto down a highway in rural Indiana,

0:07:32.405,0:07:37.925
suddenly their gas cap rolled from the top of their car into the middle of the road,

0:07:37.925,0:07:41.600
realizing they forgot to attach it after fueling up,

0:07:41.600,0:07:44.730
they stopped their car to retrieve it.

0:07:44.730,0:07:46.775
Since there was no shoulder available,

0:07:46.775,0:07:49.895
they parked their car in a driving lane.

0:07:49.895,0:07:54.650
Moments later, a van whose driver was distracted as he searched for

0:07:54.650,0:07:59.850
a fallen cigarette hit their Pinto while traveling at 50 miles per hour.

0:07:59.850,0:08:05.575
The Pinto burst into flames and all three teenagers were killed.

0:08:05.575,0:08:09.110
The state prosecutor charged the Ford Motor Company

0:08:09.110,0:08:12.290
with criminal recklessness and reckless homicide.

0:08:12.290,0:08:17.225
STRIKER: This was the first time a corporation had ever been charged with a criminal offense?

0:08:17.225,0:08:19.895
WOMAN: In a product liability case, yes.

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STRIKER: Wow. I'll bet other corporations around

0:08:22.580,0:08:25.340
the country were nervous about the outcome of the trial.

0:08:25.340,0:08:26.960
WOMAN: Yes, they were.

0:08:26.960,0:08:28.855
STRIKER: What did the court decide?

0:08:28.855,0:08:31.620
WOMAN: On March 13, 1980,

0:08:31.620,0:08:35.150
the jury returned not-guilty verdicts on

0:08:35.150,0:08:39.485
all three counts of reckless homicide against the Ford Motor Company.

0:08:39.485,0:08:41.020
STRIKER: Really, how come?

0:08:41.020,0:08:46.160
WOMAN: The prosecution was unable to show that Ford had failed to warn the public about

0:08:46.160,0:08:52.085
the Pinto's defects since Ford had issued a recall prior to the date of the accident.

0:08:52.085,0:08:54.380
STRIKER: But the girls didn't hear about the recall?

0:08:54.380,0:08:57.320
WOMAN: Yes. But just because you don't hear about something

0:08:57.320,0:09:00.010
doesn't mean it didn't happen.

0:09:00.010,0:09:04.850
The defense also called several Ford engineers to the stand who

0:09:04.850,0:09:10.475
testified they bought 1973 Pintos for their wives, children, and themselves.

0:09:10.475,0:09:13.985
This showed their confidence in the safety of the car.

0:09:13.985,0:09:17.690
But the main reason Ford Motor won the case was

0:09:17.690,0:09:21.490
because the impact happened at 50 miles per hour.

0:09:21.490,0:09:22.485
STRIKER: Why did that matter?

0:09:22.485,0:09:27.350
WOMAN: Well, not even the new rear impact standard in effect for 1977

0:09:27.350,0:09:32.765
models required that car fuel tanks be able to withstand crashes at that speed.

0:09:32.765,0:09:35.475
STRIKER: I see. So nothing happened to Ford?

0:09:35.475,0:09:40.445
WOMAN: Ford Motor paid out well over $100 million in damages,

0:09:40.445,0:09:44.585
endured approximately 117 civil lawsuits,

0:09:44.585,0:09:47.840
and recalled 1.5 million cars.

0:09:47.840,0:09:50.090
STRIKER: I guess that is pretty significant.

0:09:50.090,0:09:55.745
I just feel bad for all the people who unknowingly rode in a car that was clearly unsafe.

0:09:55.745,0:09:59.210
WOMAN: No car is ever 100% safe.

0:09:59.210,0:10:03.980
Just remember, every time you get into a vehicle, drive carefully.

0:10:03.980,0:10:05.750
STRIKER: Buckle up for safety.

0:10:05.750,0:10:07.615
WOMAN: Good advice, Striker.

0:10:07.615,0:10:12.920
Now, let's see if we can learn some other important lessons from the history of law.

0:10:12.920,0:10:17.060
Click on something and let's go explore.