Chrysler Minivan Seatback Deaths - NBC Dateline Part 1

I testified in the Baird vs. Chrysler death case in April 1995.

A few months earlier Chrysler lawyers and security staff had raided my Auburn Hills, Michigan office, and confiscated all of my office files, including safety files relating to seatback strength and the Baird death case. At the time of the December 1994 raid I was out-of-town on Christmas holiday with my family in New York.

The Chrysler Safety Leadership Team (SLT) had discussed and presented to upper Chrysler management its concern regarding the inadequacy of the federal safety standards that covered automotive seatbacks, called Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 207 (FMVSS-207). The SLT was later visciously rebuffed and reprimanded for merely claiming on internal Chrysler documents that FMVSS-207 was deficient. The central case discussed by the SLT as an example of why we in the auto industry should not rely on FMVSS-207 was the death of George Baird.

The SLT was formed in December 1992. Two-and-one-half months earlier, in September 1992, George Baird was killed in a Virginia accident, mere seconds from his home, when he was rear-ended and his Chrysler minivan seatback collapsed, he lost control of the minivan, and was brutally killed. He never made it home to his wife and family. Everyone else involved in that commuter time accident walked away with no injuries. The death of George Baird was a major SLT discussion item during early 1993.

The death case of Baird vs Chrysler was settled very shortly after my deposition testimony of April 1995.

Parts 1 and 2
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