General Motors Ordered To Pay $4.9 Billion To Six People Burned In Collision

In the biggest personal injury award in U.S. history, a jury ordered General Motors Corp. (GM) to pay $4.9 billion to six people severely burned when their Chevrolet Malibu exploded in flames in a rear-end collision six years ago.

The jury awarded Patricia Anderson, her four children, Kiontra, Kionha, Alisha and Ty-Shon, and family friend, Jo Tigner, $107 million in compensatory damages and $4.8 billion in punitive damages for injuries they suffered in the accident.

Lawyers for GM said the verdict is not likely to stand, but the plaintiffs hailed it as a huge victory for consumers.

"I just thank God that me and my kids survived," said the 31-year-old Anderson. "I thank him for allowing me to be an example to the public to put an end to this."

The six burn survivors, at JET press time, announced that they will donate one half of all punitive damages collected from the case-after federal and state income taxes are paid-to the State of California for use in paying for the care and treatment of future burn victims.

"I hope this never happens to anyone else, but we want to help others get better medical care if it does," explained Anderson.

The Andersons and Tigner were driving to a store to buy candy after they attended church services on Christmas Eve 1993 when their 1979 Malibu was struck from behind and exploded in flames in South Central Los Angeles.

During the trial, the jury was told how the four Anderson children, ranging in age from 14 months to 8 years, suffered horrible burns. One child, Alisha Parker, now 11, had one hand burned off and her ears burned down to the bone, said plaintiffs' attorney Brian Panish. He said that so far, she has had to have 70 surgeries. Her younger sister has had 60 surgeries.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs argued that the gas tank was placed too close to the rear bumper and better designs would have placed it over the axle or incorporated a shield.

The verdict came after a 10-week state court trial that focused on internal GM documents about fuel tanks in its various models. Although the documents do not specifically mention the 1979 Malibu driven by the plaintiffs, their lawyers said GM knew for years its gas tanks were unsafe.

Central to the case and the jury's record verdict was the 1973 internal GM "value analysis" memo written by an engineer that calculated the value to the auto manufacturer of preventing fuel-fed fires.

The engineer, Edward Ivey, used an assumption that "each fatality has a value of $200,000" and that there were a maximum of 500 fatalities a year in GM autos from fuel fires. The analysis said the deaths in such accidents would cost GM $2.40 per auto.

Rather than pay for a recall, plaintiffs attorneys argued, GM found it cheaper to settle lawsuits.

"GM had numerous failures in their crash tests but chose to leave the tank where it was because changing it would have cost $8.59" per car, said Panish.

Jurors concluded that GM knew it should have made its gas tanks safer.