CategoriesHowell v. Ford Case and Issue Facts
Statement by Ricky and Brenda Howell
Two years ago, we lost our three beautiful, wonderful daughters—Tara, Mysti and Megan—in a horrible fire tragedy. We will never recover from their loss. Yesterday, we ended one chapter in that loss. CONTINUED >
Howell v. Ford Case and Issue Facts
- The families of three women who burned to death in a Lincoln Town Car stretch limousine fuel tank fire settled their lawsuits against Ford Motor Co. around noon on Wednesday, January 18, 2005, in Mocksville, North Carolina. Routine motions in the trial started Tuesday morning.
- The terms of the settlement are confidential.
- The family today calls on Ford Motor Company to install life-saving fuel tank shields onto all vehicles with the fuel system design which took the lives of their daughters.
- Tara Howell Parker, 29, a former Miss Winston who lived in Charlotte, and her sisters Mysti Howell- Poplin, 28, and Megan Howell, 16, both of Mocksville, were killed September 10 th , 2003, while returning home in a Lincoln Town Car stretch limousine from a concert in Greensboro. The Lincoln Town Car stretch limousine had been rented with a professional driver to provide an extra measure of safety for the young women on a special sister night out together. The Lincoln was stopped in heavy traffic when it was rear-ended by a drunk driver in a pickup truck. The women were trapped inside the vehicle when its fuel tank exploded, burning them alive. Estimates from experts on both sides concluded that the impact speed was less than 60 mph.
- Families of the three women had sued Ford, maker of the Lincoln Town Car, claiming that the Lincoln Town Car should have been equipped with fuel tank shields for protection against fuel tank rupture and catastrophic fires in these cars when rear-ended .
- In October, 2002, Ford paid to retrofit approximately 350,000 police cars with the shields. Ford, at that time, rejected calls to place the shields on non-police cars, saying “this is not a civilian issue.” Actually, a majority of deaths and injuries in these events have occurred in non-police, family and business cars.
- With shields in place, these vehicles have been shown to survive rear impacts without fuel tank puncture at up to 100 mph. The shields are a well-known technology, having been used by Ford and other manufacturers on dozens of car lines since the 1960s.
- In September, 2005, Ford notified Lincoln Town Car stretch limousine dealers and owners about a higher risk of fuel tank puncture or rupture in these cars in high-speed rear end collisions and offered free protective shield upgrade packages, but again refused to place shields on the remainder of the similar cars on the road.
- Experts concluded that the shields would have prevented the fuel tank punctures and the sisters would have survived if there has been no fire.
- The base Lincoln Town Car and the stretch limousine conversion, is the same in these respects as the Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor, blamed in the burning deaths of numerous law enforcement officers in rear-end collisions. Ford began putting protective shields covering known puncture sources near the fuel tanks in these police cruisers in 2002.
- The Lincoln Town Car, the Ford Crown Victoria and the Mercury Grand Marquis make up Ford’s “Panther” line of passenger cars. This is the only major car platform sold in North America with the fuel tank located outside the protection of the rear axle. Unlike other cars, the fuel tank sits “sandwiched” between the rear axle and the trunk and within the cars rear “crush zone” – the area of the car that absorbs the impact from rear collisions. In these cars, rear impact is more likely to rupture or puncture the fuel tank, releasing fuel that can then be ignited by sparks.
- At least five million of these cars—unprotected from possible fuel-fed fires caused by rear collisions—are estimated to be in use on roads today.
- Ford has rejected repeated calls by safety groups and elected government officials to provide shields to all these vehicles on the road.