WEBVTT

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STRIKER: Whatcha looking at?

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WOMAN: The Pinto.

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STRIKER: I like it. My kind of car.

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WOMAN: Oh really?

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STRIKER: Sub-compact. Lots of trunk space. What's the price?

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WOMAN: Under 2,000 dollars.

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STRIKER:Huh?

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WOMAN: In 1971.

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STRIKER: Oh that makes sense.

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Still a good deal though.

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But why is it here in the law museum?

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

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State of Indiana v. Ford Motor Company.

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This was the first time an American corporation was

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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,

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in this case, an automobile that was unsafe.

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STRIKER: Yipes!

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STRIKER: So what was wrong with the Pinto?

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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.

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German and Japanese manufacturers were making lots of money producing

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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

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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,

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this left only 9 or 10 inches of crush space.

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Other design flaws included a thin strip of chrome for

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a bumper and a lack of reinforcement around the fuel tank.

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The results? At speeds over 25 miles per hour,

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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?

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WOMAN: They certainly could have improved the situation.

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Engineers at Ford came up with

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several modifications to significantly improve the safety of the vehicle.

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STRIKER: So they did make it better?

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WOMAN: No.

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STRIKER: How come?

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

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STRIKER: Why?

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WOMAN: It's hard to say.

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However, we can gain some insight into the corporate mentality

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at Ford from an internal report regarding safety,

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which was leaked to the media.

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STRIKER: What did it say?

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WOMAN: The document, nicknamed the Pinto Memo,

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was created by several analysts at Ford.

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It compared the cost of making safety improvements in advance with the cost

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Ford would most likely incur through death and injury lawsuits and lost vehicles.

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STRIKER: What?

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WOMAN: It's called a cost-benefit analysis.

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Ford estimated that if they did not fix the safety issues,

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there would be 180 deaths,

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180 injuries, and 2,100 vehicles destroyed.

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They even determined a value for each loss, $200,000 per death,

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$67,000 per burn injury,

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and $700 per lost vehicle,

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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.

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WOMAN: They compared these costs to those associated with redesigning and installing

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better safety features on the 12.5 million cars they expected to sell.

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The cost was only $11 per vehicle.

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STRIKER: And the result?

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WOMAN: They determined it will cost the company approximately $49 million in

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lawsuits and lost vehicles to sell the Pinto as it was already designed,

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or it would cost

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approximately $137 million to redesign and improve the safety defect in advance.

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STRIKER: What did they decide to do?

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WOMAN: What do you think?

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STRIKER: Keep the money?

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WOMAN: Yep, they save the money and ignored the safety risk.

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STRIKER: What happened?

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WOMAN: An estimated 27 people were killed in rear-end collisions involving the Pinto.

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Upon impact, the fuel tank would puncture and explode,

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often sending fuel into the driver's compartment which would then ignite.

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STRIKER: That's terrible.

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WOMAN: In one of the few cases that made it to trial,

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Grimshaw versus Ford, a California jury awarded a boy who had been badly burned,

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127 million dollars, 125 million of which was for

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punitive damages to punish Ford for its decision to elevate profits over human life.

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Although the judge subsequently reduced the punitive damages to 3.5 million,

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the unexpectedly high amount sent the Ford Motor Company scrambling.

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STRIKER: Scrambling to do what?

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WOMAN: To settle as many of their pending cases as possible out of court.

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STRIKER: How many cases were there?

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WOMAN: Ford was involved in dozens of cases related to the Pinto.

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However, their public image was suffering more than their bank account.

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Here's an opinion given by a California Appellate Court regarding the Ford Motor Company.

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STRIKER: "Ford decided to defer correction of the Pinto's shortcomings by engaging in

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a cost-benefit analysis balancing human lives and limbs against corporate profits.

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Ford's institutional mentality was shown to

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be one of callous indifference to public safety.

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There was substantial evidence that Ford's conduct constituted

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conscious disregard of the probability of injury to members of the consuming public.

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The conduct of Ford's management was reprehensible in the extreme.

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It exhibited a conscious and callous disregard of

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public safety in order to maximize corporate profits."

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Harsh words.

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WOMAN: It was a disaster.

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In 1976, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

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finally introduced rear impact safety regulations.

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Ford complied with the standards on their new 1977 Pinto model.

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However, the NHTSA also announced that a safety defect existed in

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the fuel systems of all Pintos manufactured between 1971 and 1976.

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Ford was forced to recall and repair 1.5 million cars.

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STRIKER: But what about those criminal charges you mentioned earlier?

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WOMAN: Oh yes. That's right.

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Prior to 1978, Ford had only been sued for monetary damages.

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However, that changed on August 10, 1978,

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when three teenage girls were driving in a 1973 Pinto down a highway in rural Indiana,

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suddenly their gas cap rolled from the top of their car into the middle of the road,

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realizing they forgot to attach it after fueling up,

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they stopped their car to retrieve it.

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Since there was no shoulder available,

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they parked their car in a driving lane.

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Moments later, a van whose driver was distracted as he searched for

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a fallen cigarette hit their Pinto while traveling at 50 miles per hour.

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The Pinto burst into flames and all three teenagers were killed.

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The state prosecutor charged the Ford Motor Company

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with criminal recklessness and reckless homicide.

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STRIKER: This was the first time a corporation had ever been charged with a criminal offense?

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WOMAN: In a product liability case, yes.

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STRIKER: Wow. I'll bet other corporations around

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the country were nervous about the outcome of the trial.

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WOMAN: Yes, they were.

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STRIKER: What did the court decide?

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WOMAN: On March 13, 1980,

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the jury returned not-guilty verdicts on

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all three counts of reckless homicide against the Ford Motor Company.

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STRIKER: Really, how come?

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WOMAN: The prosecution was unable to show that Ford had failed to warn the public about

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the Pinto's defects since Ford had issued a recall prior to the date of the accident.

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STRIKER: But the girls didn't hear about the recall?

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WOMAN: Yes. But just because you don't hear about something

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doesn't mean it didn't happen.

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The defense also called several Ford engineers to the stand who

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testified they bought 1973 Pintos for their wives, children, and themselves.

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This showed their confidence in the safety of the car.

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But the main reason Ford Motor won the case was

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because the impact happened at 50 miles per hour.

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STRIKER: Why did that matter?

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WOMAN: Well, not even the new rear impact standard in effect for 1977

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models required that car fuel tanks be able to withstand crashes at that speed.

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STRIKER: I see. So nothing happened to Ford?

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WOMAN: Ford Motor paid out well over $100 million in damages,

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endured approximately 117 civil lawsuits,

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and recalled 1.5 million cars.

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STRIKER: I guess that is pretty significant.

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I just feel bad for all the people who unknowingly rode in a car that was clearly unsafe.

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WOMAN: No car is ever 100% safe.

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Just remember, every time you get into a vehicle, drive carefully.

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STRIKER: Buckle up for safety.

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WOMAN: Good advice, Striker.

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

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Click on something and let's go explore.