Ford Pays after College Student is Killed by Collapsing Pickup Roof

A 19-year-old college student was driving his 2002 Ford F150 pickup on a Texas highway when the driver of a sedan pulled out from a private drive and directly into the pickup’s path. As the teen steered to avoid a crash, the F150 slid into a ditch and rolled onto its top.

The claim against Ford was based on the roof structure of the F150 being completely incapable of withstanding the vehicle’s weight and it rolled. The roof crushed down over and onto the boy’s head. Once the pickup was righted at the scene, the extreme roof crush was evident.

According to first responders, the teen was trapped inside the overturned pickup with his head against the crushed roof and his chin pushed into his chest. He was unable to breathe. Transported to the hospital in extremely critical condition, the young man later slipped into a coma. A week after the crash, he died. His brain had been too badly injured by being deprived of oxygen while the teen was trapped under the collapsed roof.

“Ford has known for decades how to make a roof that will not crush over a vehicle’s occupants in a rollover. Yet it chose to make this young man’s F150 with a weak roof that was all but guaranteed to collapse in a rollover. Ford had to be held accountable for such conduct,” says Ammons.

The Ammons Law Firm has a nationwide personal injury practice focusing on tire defects, truck accidents, rollovers, consumer protection and product liability, catastrophic injury, wrongful death, post-collision fires, seat belt defects, airbag defects, and plant explosions.