<VV> Handling & tire pressure.

[wrsssatty at aol.com]

That was the Rose Pierini case in California.  That's the one that Mr. Nader spoke of in his book.  Her left arm was severed in the rollover.  The tire rotation was done at the Chevy dealership by a student mechanic.  You got the facts correct except when the car darted over to the other side it didn't dig in and flip, it went up on an embankment and this caused it to flip.  GM's experts said that at the speed in question the tire pressure would not have made a difference.  Perhaps apropos of nothing it has been noted that Mrs. Pierini had recently been released from a mental institution.  In those days products liability lawsuits were virtually unheard of.  A then recent change in the law (by a court case decided by California's state supreme court) created the doctrine of "strict liability in tort" and made product liability lawsuits easier to prove for plaintiffs.  GM had a minuscule in house legal staff at the time and relied upon their liability insurance carrier, Royal Globe Insurance, to defend.  Royal Globe decided to settle mid-trial to the limits of their liability under the policy.  Furthermore, "gag orders" were not yet common and the plaintiff's lawyers (law firm of David Harney) touted the settlement on that evening's local news to drum up more cases.  After that fiasco GM ramped up their legal department, dismissed Royal Globe from defending lawsuits against GM, choosing to mount their own defense and instituted a gag order anytime they did settle.


~Bill Stanley
<Tim:  I don't have a mental list of all the Corvair cases.  Or a paper list
for that matter! 
But I remember one of the cases involved a owner who had her EM serviced,
including tire rotation.  Chevy dealer service person did not adjust the
tire pressures.  IIRC, service department did back to front, front to
opposite side rear, that rear to front and that front to opposite side rear.
Talk about a evil handling car.  Drove it two weeks before she dropped right
side off road, and jerked it back on to road.  At which point car went crazy
off the opposite side, dug in and flipped.  She said she thought something
was wrong, but didn't take it back to dealer. >