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FORD BRONCO II ( BRONCO 2 ) ROLLOVER
ACCIDENTS, ROOF FAILURES, TIRE SEPARATIONS, INJURIES & DEATHS
A Tragic Story of Corporate Greed...
by David P. Willis - Attorney at Law
As early as the 1970's, Ford Motor Company knew that the new Ford Bronco II ( Ford Bronco 2 Bronco ii, Bronco ll &/or Bronco2 ) a hybrid truck / passenger type vehicle would be a winner. What Ford didn't even consider was the rollover problem that they were creating for themselves. With the popularity of the AMC Jeep CJ-7, the idea for the Ford Bronco immerged. Ford officials knew that they must act quickly as news of General Motors producing a similar type vehicle had already leaked out, and Ford was intent on beating GM to the punch. GM was to introduce a new concept off road passenger vehicle known as the Blazer in the fall lineup for 1982. Therefore not to loose market share, Ford hurried it's own concept vehicle through development and testing. Ford in their haste to beat GM, decided against the advise of it's own engineers and decided to use an existing chassis of the small pickup known as the Ford Ranger. The use of this chassis was just the start of many bad corporate and engineering decisions that costs 100's of lives and 100's of millions of dollars in lawsuits against Ford.
By deciding to use the Ford Ranger platform, Ford could save many months of development time and millions in engineering and testing. Ford however became concerned when early tests of the prototype showed high rollover risks. In fact just two months after Ford approved the Bronco for development, the problems and the bad press about the Jeep CJ came to light on the television show " 60 Minutes". In that episode, test revealed the Jeep CJ starting to tip over in a J-Turn at a modest speed of just 22 miles an hour. Ford's own engineering were aware of the Jeep's problem and worked to greatly improve upon Jeep's rollover ratings. However by spring of 1981, Ford's engineers knew that they had a rollover problem. At a Arizona test track, the Bronco with 15 inch wheels and large tires, rolled over in a 35 mph J-turn test.
Immediately Ford's lawyers started to attend all development and engineering meetings. In this way, Ford thought that they could better prevent damaging evidence from being produced and possibly in an attempt to cover engineering meeting with the shroud of the attorney-client privilege and to help develop warning labels and manuals that would somewhat warn the consumer, without scaring off the customer.
In order to keep the Bronco from rolling over, they discussed the need to widen the vehicle about wider but that would hurt the fuel economy so they talked about the use of lower tires to reduce the center of gravity, but consumers like the big wheel -15 inch tire better, Ford thought. Later in a Ford presentation to the top executives, it was discuused that the problem with the Bronco rolling over couldn't be fixed and that they said "do what you can to fine tune it." Even with these newest changes, the Bronco ll was doomed. Later on August 13, 1982 in another test for the senior legal team, the Bronco ll lifted off from the ground in a 43 mph test. Ford's legal team started preparing for the worst. The legal team started to "gather" damaging documents and tests to help "close the loop" of the document trail. Strangely enough, a number of very damning documents were "somehow" lost or destroyed, even a copy of the then current policy manual on document destruction was also "lost or destroyed". One last ditch effort by Ford to lower the center of gravity was by enlarging the gas tank and by putting a heavier tank protection plate beneath the tank and slightly wider wheels. While it lowered the center of gravity (COG), there was no difference in terms of its rollover propensity or safety.
Then in Jan. 1983 a computer program at Ford, predicted the rollover problem at speeds as low as 32 mph. In months to follow, even a Ford engineer rolled a Bronco on a test track when he hit the brake during a U-Turn and at a speed of only 20 mph. Ford's itself, estimated 141 "first event" rollovers deaths would occur a year for every one million Ford Bronco II's that were sold.
In the Fall of 1983, Ford introduced the sporty new Ford Bronco ll in both 2 wheel drive and 4 wheel drive models. Sales of this new "sports utility vehicle" exploded and the number of deaths to unsuspecting consumers also exploded. To date 100's of individuals have been killed or maimed as a direct and intentional decision by Ford Motor Company and its executives to release this very dangerous vehicle into the public's un-trained hands.
BRONCO II ROLLOVER STATISTICS
Some 600,000 Ford Bronco II's are still on American roads today, which means that 600,000 owners-and their passengers, fellow motorists, and passers-by-are at risk of injury or even death as a result of a rollover accident. One out of every 14 of the Bronco II's still on the road will roll over. Statisticians estimate that more than 25,000 Bronco II rollovers have occurred since 1983. Ford Bronco II rollover accidents have resulted in at least 1,000 deaths, and more than 5,000 serious injuries
One would think that the shame of such corporate greed would never be repeated. Sadly, such level of greed and shame has risen it's ugly head again with the the introduction of the absolute Rollover King known as the Ford Explorer.
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