CORRECTION ON 02/20/07 -- In a Feb. 10 Review-Journal article, the amount of actual damages awarded to plaintiffs in a case against Goodyear tire company was incorrect. A jury decided Goodyear would have to pay $30.2 million in actual damages. In the same article and in John L. Smith'sFeb. 6 column, the number of passengers riding in a van during a 2004 accident was incorrect. There were 10 passengers in the van.
A jury on Friday decided that the Goodyear tire company will not have to pay punitive damages in connection with a fatal 2004 passenger van accident that investigators blamed on the blowout of one of the van's tires.
"We were very, very disappointed," said Victoria Enriquez-Campe, whose brother Frank Enriquez was killed in the accident. "The bottom line to us is that it was the tire (that caused the accident). We wanted punitive damages so it would be on the record that that particular tire was the reason for it."
Advertisement
The same jury in District Judge Salley Loehrer's courtroom on Monday decided Goodyear would have to pay up to $37 million in actual damages to the accident victims' families.
Eleven people, representing three Hispanic families and including several children, were traveling along Interstate 70 in Grand County, Utah, toward Kansas City, Mo., for a boxing competition when driver Ernesto Torres lost control of the rented 15-passenger van and it crossed into the median and rolled several times. Investigators said the blowout of a Goodyear Load Range E series tire triggered the Aug. 16, 2004, accident.
Enriquez, who was traveling to the tournament with his two sons, died at the scene along with Ervetina Trujillo Tapia. Ernesto and Leonor Torres' son, 12-year-old Andres Torres, died a week later of injuries.
Enriquez's son Joseph suffered severe brain injuries. He received $14.5 million of the actual damages award, which his family said will be used to help pay for his care.
Matthew Callister, an attorney for the families, said he expects Goodyear to appeal the decision for actual damages. Attorneys for Goodyear could not be reached for comment on Friday.
Figures compiled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration show the "sudden catastrophic tire failure" by the Goodyear Load Range E series manufactured from 1991 to 1999 resulted in at least 18 deaths and 158 injuries, many of which occurred after the company had been informed of possible problems with its product.
Goodyear volunteered to notify original tire owners and offered to replace tires on large passenger vans. But the company from which the Hispanic families rented the van said they never received notice from Goodyear.
