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A $9 Safety Improvement Could Have Saved the Anderson Family from Horrific Burns





On Christmas Eve, 1993, Patricia Anderson drove her four children, ages six to 15, home from church services in their Chevy Malibu. As Ms. Anderson pulled up to a red light they were rear-ended by another car. The front of the other car was forced partially underneath her rear bumper and punctured her fuel tank in several places. The leaking fuel ignited, and the car burst into flames with the force of 108 sticks of dynamite.




Patricia and her children suffered severe and debilitating burns. Eight-year-old Kiontra was burned when, after escaping, she ran back to the car to help get her younger sister out. Three of Anderson's four children were burned over 60 percent of their bodies.



Last week the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on product safety that focused partly on the Chevy Malibu case as an example of egregious corporate misconduct.




What makes this story even more tragic is that the injuries suffered were wholly preventable. General Motors knew for several decades that the placement of the fuel tank in the Malibu made the car unreasonably dangerous and at risk of exploding in the event of a rear collision.




Yet instead of putting the safety of families like the Andersons first, GM made a conscious decision to market a product they knew would kill people.




In an example of Pinto math, an internal GM memo showed that the company estimated that deaths resulting from post-collision fuel-tank fires cost General Motors $2.40 per car. This calculation was based on an estimate that each life "has a value of $200,000." Internal memos also showed that the company had developed an improved design that would do a better job of protecting the gas tank in collisions. Improving the design would cost the company $8.59 per car. Executives decided not to do so.





In 1999, a jury found that General Motors Corp., in an effort to cut costs and increase profits, knowingly endangered the lives of their customers and ordered the company to provide compensation for the horrific burns to the Anderson family.







On The Hill

Last Friday, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on proposed criminal sanctions for corporate executives who deliberately endanger American lives by knowingly putting a defective product on the market. Witnesses at the hearing discussed both the exploding fuel tanks in the Chevy Malibu and the Guidant heart defibrillator as tragic examples of what happens when corporate executives place profits before human life.



By the Numbers

$8.59:Amount that GM estimated it would cost to improve the fuel tank design, per car.
[Source: Respondent's Brief, CA Court of Appeals, 2nd Appellate District, Case No. B135147]

$4 billion: Amount GM spends yearly on advertising.
[Source: Trial Testimony]

500: Number of fatalities GM estimated would occur every year because of post-collision fuel tank fires.
[Source: Internal GM Document (Ivey Memo)]

5 million: Number of GM vehicles with the dangerous fuel tank that are still on the road, including the Malibu, Oldsmobile Cutlass, Pontiac Grand Am and El Camino.
[Source: Trial Testimony]