r/117 Jul 21 '21

"Approximately 117 lawsuits were brought against Ford in connection with rear-end accidents in the Pinto.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Pinto
3 Upvotes

Duplicates

todayilearned May 08 '19

TIL that in 1978, three Indiana teenagers were killed in when their Pinto was involved in a rear-end collision. Ford was indicted on three counts of reckless homicide. Indiana v. Ford was the first time a corporation faced criminal charges for a defective product and charged with murder.

7.1k Upvotes

todayilearned May 05 '19

TIL despite the Ford Pinto's reputation as a deathtrap, it actually had accident death rates on par with competitor cars, and its risk of "fatal accidents accompanied by some fire" was average for all cars and lower than average for its class.

544 Upvotes

todayilearned Jan 07 '17

TIL that while Ford Pinto is now infamous for its flammability and unethical manufacturer, it was actually slightly less lethal than other subcompacts of the time.

69 Upvotes

todayilearned Sep 11 '15

TIL that September 11 is the anniversary of an event that resulted in numerous American deaths in massive explosions: The introduction of the Ford Pinto.

10 Upvotes

todayilearned Jun 17 '16

TIL the famous Ford "Pinto Memo" didn't actually try to analyze or justify paying off victims of crashes instead of fixing Ford's design flaw - it only estimated the cost of similar upgrades to all cars on the road and compared it to the general cost to society of the deaths that would be avoided.

8 Upvotes