Ford Must Compensate $2.5 Billion to Family of Couple Who Died in F-250 Rollover Accident | Carscoops

      Herman and Debra Mills tragically lost their lives when their Super Duty truck struck a drainage culvert and overturned in 2022.

      Eight hours ago, Chris Chilton reported that Ford has been ordered to pay $2.5 billion to the bereaved family following the deadly incident involving the couple.

      The Mills were fatally injured when their 2015 F-250 flipped and landed on its roof after veering off the road and hitting a drainage culvert obscured by grass. The truck flew approximately 81 feet (24.7 meters) before coming to rest on its roof.

      The jury determined that Ford's trucks manufactured from 1999 to 2016 had "defective and dangerously weak roofs."

      After this ruling, Ford is liable for $2.5 billion in punitive damages, as the jury found the company accountable for the deaths of the Georgia couple in a single-vehicle accident in 2022.

      Debra Mills died at the crash site, while her husband passed away from his injuries in the hospital nine days later. The family’s attorneys claimed that the insufficient roof strength of the pickup directly led to their deaths, asserting that all Ford trucks produced between 1999 and 2016 had "defective and dangerously weak roofs."

      The legal representation highlighted that the trucks had a strength-to-weight ratio of 1:1, whereas the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety requires a ratio of 4.0 for a vehicle to receive a "good" rating. Ford's legal team argued that the trucks were safe and contended that Debra Mills' heart attack led to the crash, though they faced significant challenges, having already been ordered to pay $1.17 billion in punitive damages in 2022 for another fatal rollover incident from 2014.

      Since the initial ruling, Ford has faced numerous lawsuits, as noted by Ford Authority. Following the most recent verdict, the company maintains that the trucks were designed to meet the crash standards of their time and believes that a $30 billion payout is excessively high.

      A Ford spokesperson expressed condolences to the Brogdon family but stated that the verdict is "impermissibly extreme and not supported by the evidence," and announced plans to appeal the decision, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.