Las Vegas jury returns verdict for General Motors, against woman injured wearing lap belt

Las Vegas jurors on Friday returned a verdict in favor of General Motors and against a woman seriously injured in a crash while wearing a lap belt as a passenger in a pickup truck.

The jury found that the lap-only seat belt plaintiff Allie Mead wore was not unreasonably dangerous and defective.

The jury also found that General Motors did not fail to adequately warn Mead about the dangers of the lap-only belt.

“I’m shocked,” said her attorney, Robert Eglet. “We clearly proved that the product was defective, and we clearly proved that they didn’t warn her of the dangers.”

Mead is “kind of in shock, too,” he added.

Defense attorney Michael Cooney declined to comment.

Eglet had asked the jury to award Mead $64.8 million.

That figure was in addition to the more than $8.6 million that Eglet said District Judge Tara Clark Newberry had ordered Mead would receive, if she won the case, as “special damages” for things such as loss of wages and cost of medical treatment.

Eglet has been known for winning large verdicts, including more than $3 billion in a March civil trial against bottled water company Real Water. In that case, he represented plaintiff Lisa King and other attorneys represented additional plaintiffs.

Juries in civil trials are not required to be unanimous, and two of the eight jurors said they did not agree with the verdict when they were polled.

Mead was riding in a 1998 Chevrolet truck around 1:50 a.m. on Aug. 18, 2018, when the vehicle collided with a tree and a boulder, her 2020 lawsuit said.

She suffered a spinal fracture, ruptured colon and abdominal trauma, according to a news release.

Eglet said in his closing argument Thursday that she lives with unending pain, will require additional surgeries in the future and has been diagnosed with PTSD and major depressive disorder.

He argued to the jury that a lap and shoulder seat belt was the safest option and was economically feasible, but General Motors installed a dangerous belt instead.

“The lap-only belt snapped her forward like closing a jack knife,” he said, adding, “the seat belt that was supposed to protect her became the weapon that destroyed her.”

Cooney told jurors that a seat belt is not defective because it causes injury.

“That lap belt did its job here,” he said.

The belt attempts to essentially redistribute energy and prevent users from being propelled forward, Cooney said, and all seat belts can injure people.

Multiple jurors declined to comment after the trial.

“I’m not disappointed in me,” Eglet said. “I’m disappointed for my client Allie.”

Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.