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| January 25, 1983
Section: FRONT Edition: FRST Page: 6B ASSOCIATED PRESS A man who suffered burns over 90 per cent of his body in a 1972 Pinto crash says a multimillion-dollar settlement with Ford Motor Co. one year ago can't erase his suffering, but is starting to reshape his life. Richard Grimshaw, who had nearly 70 operations as a result of his injuries, got $6.6 million plus interest in his settlement. |
Since then, he has been taking helicopter lessons, buying new homes and cars for himself and his mother, producing a recording and making investments. "I was glad for my mom, especially," said Grimshaw. One of the first things he did after the settlement was tell his mother to retire from two jobs she held to support her two children and keep up insurance payments for his medical bills. He also donated $30,000 to a local hospital's burn unit.Grimshaw was 13 when he was a passenger in a 1972 Pinto driven by a neighbor, Lily Gray. The car stalled on Interstate 15 near San Bernardino on May 28, 1972, and was struck from behind by a car going 35 m.p.h.The Pinto's fuel tank ruptured and the car was engulfed in flames. Gray was killed and her young passenger was critically hurt. In 1978, a jury awarded Grimshaw $127.8 million. Testimony indicated Ford's own crash tests had shown the Pinto fuel tank -- located six inches from the bumper -- could explode on an impact of as little as 20 m.p.h., and that the hazard could have been corrected by the installation of a $10 device. Evidence also included a confidential Ford memo saying the company could save $20.9 million by delaying installation of the device by four years.Ford officials had argued that the fuel-tank design was safe and met all federal standards. Federal authorities, however, persuaded the automaker to recall Pintos for modification soon after the Grimshaw case gained national attention. A judge later reduced Grimshaw's award to $6.6 million. Ford's appeal to the California Supreme Court was set aside in September 1981, and the company was preparing to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court when the settlement, one of the first involving Ford Pintos, was reached.The settlement included an agreement that terms would not be disclosed. But they surfaced last week when one of Grimshaw's lawyers, said his client got $6.6 million plus interest. In a similar Pinto case, a grand jury in Indiana indicted Ford in 1978 on charges of reckless homicide. That action stemmed from the deaths of three young women after their 1973 Pinto exploded and burned when it was rear-ended on an Indiana road.After a 10-week trial, which ended in March 1980, the automaker was cleared of the charges. But shortly after the trial -- the first time a manufacturer faced criminal charges for an alleged product defect -- Ford reached an out-of-court settlement with the victims' parents.When Grimshaw's settlement came through, he was working for $2.50 an hour at a government-subsidized street-repair job for the City of Garden Grove. "It was like we were trapped all those years with the lawsuit going on," Grimshaw recently told The Register of Orange County. "Then all of a sudden it was a chance to have freedom."Grimshaw once studied music at Fullerton College. Now he "It could have been more just," he said of the award. "Not that I'm greedy. But there was no punishment. It was no sweat to Ford. "You always wish you could be the way you were in the beginning. And someone dying in the accident. You can never replace that."
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Copyright (c) 1983 The Miami Herald
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