Freda Kay Hall died in the crash of a Ford Bronco II that flipped over after the tread peeled off one of its General GT52S tires. A 48-year-old Missouri schoolteacher, Hall was visiting Atlanta for the Olympic Games at the time of her death in August 1996.
Her family is now pressing a lawsuit in Georgia against Ford Motor Co. and Continental General Tire Inc., alleging among other things that the tires used as original equipment on the sport utility vehicle should have been recalled years before.
Hall died in one of at least 34 reported cases of Bronco IIs rolling over after the failure of GT52S tires. Eighteen deaths and 58 injuries were reported in those crashes, which remain a small subset of rollovers involving the Bronco II.
Ford and Continental General maintain that they are not liable for Hall's death. The case could go to trial early next year.
A similar crash in Texas killed two people and severely injured three others in July 1998. Esteban Martinez, 11, and Maria Leija, 20, died when the Bronco II in which they were riding flipped over, allegedly after the tread or belts of one of its GT52S tires suddenly peeled away. Ford, without admitting liability, recently agreed to a confidential settlement. Claims against the tire maker are pending.
A bitterly fought case in Los Angeles involves another 15-inch tire model from General and a different vehicle, a '93 Ford Taurus. Defense lawyers contend that the crash victim, Cynthia Lampe, who was left a quadriplegic, was to blame for allowing the car to leave the road after the tread peeled from one of its tires.
Lampe was en route to Las Vegas in June 1996 when the tread suddenly separated from her left rear tire, a General AmeriTech steel-belted radial. The car went out of control, veered off northbound Interstate 15, rolled up an embankment and flipped over on its roof. Lampe, then 28, suffered a broken neck. Her mother, Sylvia Cortez, also was injured.
Lampe, her mother and her father, Joe Cortez, a prominent boxing referee, have settled their lawsuit against three defendants: Ford; a Sears Roebuck & Co. service center that inspected the Taurus shortly before the ill-fated trip; and a dealership that sold the used Taurus. Without admitting liability, the defendants agreed to settlements totaling $4.09 million, court records show.
Trial of the claims against Continental General is scheduled to begin in January.
