Mother awarded $3.4M in minivan accident

Mother awarded $3.4M in minivan accident

DAIMLERCHRYSLER HAS ANNOUNCED it will appeal a $3.4 million award won by the mother of a 2-year-old who died in an accident caused when the child dislodged the automatic transmission leaver of the parked minivan in which she was sitting.

A company press release state that the judgment issued by a federal jury in Atlanta last week could be reduced because the jury found the child’s mother 49 percent responsible for the child’s death.

Jeffrey R. Harris of Harris Penn & Lowry, who represented the girl’s mother, said the March 1 decision ended a case that he said was the first of its kind DaimlerChrysler let go to trial. Harris, who represented Lori Hamby along with firm partner Darren W. Penn and Rebecca C. Franklin of Scherffius, Ballard, Still & Ayres, said he has settled two similar cases with the company.

Because the case involved an older vehicle, a 1991 Dodge Caravan, “they may have thought they could prevail,” said Harris.

The DaimlerChrysler release, sent in response to a call made to its local counsel, Mary Diane Owens of Atlanta’s Swift, Currie, McGhee & Hiers, blamed the mother for the accident but said the company would not comment on the court proceedings.

The case started in July 2002, when Hamby was hanging clothes in the yard of her grandmother’s Forsyth County home while her daughter, Mary Madison Hamby sat inside the minivan, which was not running, as it was being washed and vacuumed by Lori Hamby’s fiancé, Roberto Martinez.

Martinez turned to grab a bottle of Windex about 15 feet away, said Harris, and Madison apparently struck the automatic transmission lever, allowing the minivan to roll down a 120-foot driveway.

When it struck a small tree, Madison fell out, was pinned under the right front tire and died from compression asphyxiation and trauma, according to the complaint in Hamby v. DaimlerChrysler, No. 1:03CV:0937-CAP.

The problem, said Harrsion, was the vehicle’s lack of a brake shift interlock, a device that keeps the transmission from being shifted out of “Park” unless the brake pedal is depressed. Other major automakers have been placing the devices in their cars since at least 1995, said Harris.

Harris dismissed the jury’s finding that the mother was at fault, characterizing the defense as saying simply that Martinez “shouldn’t have walked away.”

The DaimlerChrysler statement included comments from an assistant general counsel, Louann Van Der Wiele, who blamed the mother and fiancé.

“This tragic accident occurred because a two year old child was left alone in a vehicle with the key in the ignition, the doors open and the parking brake not in use.”

“A brake shift interlock was not designed to prevent this type of an accident, nor was it designed to relieve adults of their responsibility to never leave children alone in vehicles,” the release added. The lawyer noted that 46 states have laws regarding unattended children in cars, with 12 states criminalizing leaving a child alone in a vehicle.

The release also noted that a jury in Iowa last month ruled against the widow of a man run over by his 1999 Dodge Ram. In that case, however, the truck was idling, and 69-year-old Ralph Ahlberg slipped beneath the vehicle as he tried to catch it. Ahlberg v. DaimlerChrysler, No. 4:04-cv-60104-TIS, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa.