Mitsubishi Motors Instructed To Pay USD1 Bn in Damages in Us Car Crash

According to NST, Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors has been told by a US court to pay $1.01 billion in damages over a 2017 car accident in the United States.

The company has clarified that they will be appealing the judgement.

The plaintiff blamed a defective seatbelt design in her husband Francis Amagasu’s 1992 Mitsubishi 3000GT that left him with severe injuries after the crash in Pennsylvania.

Amagasu lost control of his car while overtaking and as the vehicle rolled over the seatbelt failed to constrain him properly, according to US media reports.

This caused his head to hit the roof of the car, breaking his neck and leaving him paralysed, the reports said, adding that the damages award was one of Philadelphia’s biggest to date.

The court in Philadelphia County on May 6 ordered Mitsubishi Motors to pay $976 million as well as $33 million in delay damages, the Japanese firm said in a statement.

This confirms an earlier ruling by a jury.

“We do not accept the above judgement and MMNA (Mitsubishi Motors North America) plans to appeal to the higher court,” Mitsubishi Motors said.

“We will continue to provide vehicles in compliance with applicable laws and safety standards.”

The Mitsubishi 3000GT is no slouch on the road with a 3.0-liter V6 engine and twin turbochargers that outputs 300hp and 400Nm of torque.

We don’t know the circumstances of the accident but we’d like to speculate that the plaintiff was not overtaking at a leisurely pace.

In fact, we’d wager that the driver was a little heavy-footed on the turn and relied a little too heavily on a piece of polyester that was, at the time, already 25 years old.

Well, we’re lucky that we’re neither Mitsubishi Motors, nor do we have to face the legal system in America.

We wish both parties all the best and may the truth prevail.