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From: mzal@pegasus.UUCP (Mike Zaleski)
Newsgroups: net.auto
Subject: Re: Who is Liable, ad nauseum...
Message-ID: <1353@pegasus.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 26-May-84 17:01:14 EDT
Article-I.D.: pegasus.1353
Posted: Sat May 26 17:01:14 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 1-Jun-84 02:44:05 EDT
Organization: AT&T Information Systems, Lincroft NJ
Lines: 32

Chris Prael:
 In both cases, the "victim" clearly failed to take reasonable and prudent
 precautions. And that is irresponsible! 1. It is not reasonable and prudent to
 leave the engine of an unattended vehicle running. 2. It is not reasonable and
 prudent to leave an unattended vehicle without setting the parking brake.

Perhaps the government should require all automakers to put an interlock
on the car which (1) shuts the engine off whenever the driver leaves the
car and (2) sets the parking brake at the same time?

 I don't see any functional difference between the two people you cited and the
 drunken slob who crashed the Porsche 930 in San Diego. In each case the
 operator of the vehicle did not bother to pay attention to business. (Only
 an ignoramous would call any of these people drivers.) And that is what
 kills people.

This viewpoint follows logically from the previous paragraph.
However, I think that most people would have a more sympathetic
view of these victims (which does not necessarily mean that they
are owed anything by Ford, but calling them names seems rather
hostile).

Related to this matter, I recently saw a posting in this newsgroup
which claimed that Ford could have fixed this problem for a cost
of 3 cents per car.  I assume this means only the cost of modifying
cars in production?  I would find it hard to believe that for 3 cents
per car sold, Ford could track down and notify the owners and have
their cars repaired at a dealer.  (This does not mean I think Ford
should not have made the repairs, but I like people's numbers to
make some sense.)

-- Mike^Z    Zaleski@Rutgers    allegra!pegasus!mzal