The South Carolina Supreme Court has decided that Ford can face a wrongful death lawsuit regarding the materials they use in their car and truck windows. This decision comes just days after the same court ruled that another car company, Mazda, could be sued for wrongful death regarding which type of seat belts they install in their vehicles.
The decision comes after a wrongful death lawsuit filed by a South Carolina mother regarding James Lloyd, a teen who died in a Ford Truck accident in 2003.
The accident took place after Lloyd and a friend, Preston Cromer, spent the night drinking at a strip club despite the fact that neither were of legal drinking age. On the drive home, Cromer, the driver, was speeding while Lloyd was in the back of the truck cab. When Cromer lost control of the vehicle, it ran off of the road and rolled over several times, ejecting Lloyd from the vehicle. He was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the accident and died at the scene of the crash.
Lloyd’s mother, Mary Robyn Priester, took her wrongful death case to court, stating that the strip club should have never served the boys alcohol and that Ford Motor Company should have never used the materials that they did to make windows that shattered so easily and that caused Lloyd’s ejection from the vehicle.
In the past, courts have showed inconsistency in wrongful death cases like these, in which federal safety standards often pre-empt the lawsuits.