Managing Product Safety - The Ford Pinto

17 Pages 4246 Words

mph standard would be expected in the future. Subsequent testing on the Pinto at 20 and 30 mph resulted in excessive fuel leakage. Ford management realized that a major tear-up of vehicle design would be required to modify vehicle design, and due to concerns about the viability of the fixed barrier standard, did not start modifications to the Pinto to comply with this new standard.

An engineer at Ford, A. J. Pricor, evaluated the small car lines and recommended specific modifications to make the cars substantially safer from fuel leakage and fire in rear-end collisions, including a rubber bladder costing $5.80 per vehicle that would provide “a substantial improvement in crash worthiness.” The bladder however would be stiff in very cold weather and failed in very hot weather under test conditions.

In 1973, NHTSA proposed a 30 mph moving barrier rear-end fuel integrity standard effective September 1976 for the 1977 models. At the same time, it also adopted a fuel system integrity standard applicable to rollover accidents, where minimal fuel leakage was permitted from a rollover. Ford executives fought this standard, as leakage would occur from multiple orifices on an engine that were required to be freely open during the normal operation of the fuel intake.

Ford determined that it could meet the rollover standard by installing an $11 valve on each of the 12.5 million vehicles on the road at the time, for a total cost of $137 million. A cost-benefit analysis was performed, utilizing government and NTHSA data, where the value assigned to the potential burn deaths, injuries, and burned vehicles, which would total $45 million. These costs only included economic loss as no figures were available for pain and suffering at the time. The rollover standard was eventually adopted with modifications.

In 1975 a study was performed regarding fire-related incidents involving motor vehicles. Ford, representing 20% of passenger vehicles ...