Family Suing Chrysler Over Crash
The Chrysler Corp. is being sued by a teenage boy who lost parts of both legs in a fiery car crash that killed his two friends in southeastern Washington.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Spokane, challenges the “vehicle crashworthiness” of a 1985 Chrysler LeBaron convertible.
A manufacturing defect caused a fire to break out after the crash, severely injuring 15-year-old Robert J. Cram of Longview, Wash., the suit alleges.
Cram was riding in the back seat when the car swerved into the path of a pickup truck on April 6, 1993, near Asotin, Wash. The truck driver wasn’t injured.
A fire broke out in the engine compartment of the Chrysler and spread through the car after the crash, while Cram was pinned in the wreckage, the suit says.
The youth “sustained relatively minor injuries” in the collision, but “severe and disabling injuries” from the ensuing fire, the suit alleges.
“If occupants of a car survive a crash, they shouldn’t die or be injured by fire,” said Seattle attorney Paul Whelan, who filed the suit.
The suit seeks unspecified damages for Cram, now 19 and a college student in Vancouver, Wash.
He lost one leg at the knee and the other below the knee, and now uses a wheelchair.
Plaintiffs are Cram and his parents, Rick and Irene Cram, of Longview, and Cram’s sister, Paula Cram, who saw the accident.
The car was among 1 million Chrysler models manufactured between 1984-1987 that were targeted for recall for defective fuel systems.
Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, in Washington, D.C., said Wednesday the cars experienced problems with their fuel-pressure regulators and fuel hoses.
“It involved gasoline leaks,” Ditlow said.
A federal study in the 1980s showed that vehicle recalls have a 20 percent error rate. Ditlow said that means 1-in-5 cars never gets the recall modifications.
Manufacturers are responsible for finding current owners in vehicles that have been resold, Ditlow said.
It’s not known whether the Chrysler in the accident was taken to a dealer for recall modifications.
Two of Cram’s friends, driver Matthew T. Snell and David L. Van Scotter, both 15 and from Lewiston died in the accident. It occurred on County Road 110, about 5 miles west of Asotin in southeastern Washington.
Cram’s legs were pinned in the wreckage and he couldn’t be immediately pulled clear of the fire by rescuers, including his sister.
Paula Cram and Van Scotter’s sister, Debbie, were in a second vehicle following the Chrysler.
Matthew Snell was 15 at the time and didn’t have a driver’s license.
, DataTimes