Ford Motor Company is facing a potential class action suit, brought by a woman in Florida, a man from Mississippi, and a couple from Illinois, who allege their cars caught fire as a result of a defective cruise control switch.
The plaintiffs allege that prior to manufacturing the vehicles, Ford knew there were problems with the design, manufacture, and placement of the SCD switch used in their vehicles, but used the same or similar design anyway.
Between May 1999 and January 2008 Ford issued several recalls on several of their models because of the cruise control defect, and the associated risk for fire. According to the suit, reports from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) show at least 218 similar events of fires were reported as resulting from defective cruise control deactivation switches in Ford vehicles. The NHTSA had confirmed that 65 of those fires were indeed caused by the failure of the deactivation cruise control switch by June 22, 2005.
The plaintiffs' cars caught fire in 2007, and all parties sustained property damage including the loss of other vehicles parked near to the Ford vehicles which caught fire. The class is seeking damages of $5 million.
