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I am confident that there will be litigation and that, amongst other things, the plaintiffs will allege that the car was inherently unsafe for sale/use as a street vehicle; that the two segments of the tub were inadequately constructed; that the fire was due to negligent design/construction; that there was inadequate crush space, etc., etc. I suspect that they will also have little difficulty finding some 'experts' to support these propositions.
Even if the accident reconstruction reports clearly show that the vehicle was driven negligently and at a speed inappropriate for the road it was on, you will likely find a jury in the US that will feel sympathetic for two such nice young men and award millions. Afterall, a US jury awarded $2 million (as I recall) to a women who burned her thighs when she spilled coffee on them while opening the cup between her bare legs.
Why? There was no cautionary note that "cofffee is hot"! (That is why we now have these idiotic reminders on coffee cups). The real reason for the jury's decision, of course, is that MacDonalds has deep pockets and this poor, nice woman (who had great legs, I suspect) had to spend money she could not afford on only partially successful surgery on the disfigurement to those great legs. I am sure that some psychologist testified she is embarrssed to go out in shorts, or short dresses/skirts; that the most outstanding part of her figure was her legs and her sense of self-worth was inextricably bound up with the same. The poor girl was probably suicidal! What is worse, she will no longer be able to attract a 'leg man' - the type of man who dated her in the past. I mean, when Rod Stewart wrote the song 'Hot legs' he may have been thinking of her. Well, somebody has to pay and surely MacDonald's can afford it! Cha Ching!
Does anyone here actually believe that this will not end up in litigation? Does anyone honestly believe that Porsche will not ultimately pay out millions upon millions - likely to settle rather than try such a high profile case, whether or not they were negligent? Does anyone think they will be willing to lose in the court of public opinion, regardless of what may happen at trial?
Brad
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