California musician awarded $18.3 million from Ford for accident that left him disabled

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal court jury awarded $18.3 million in damages Wednesday to a Bay Area musician who suffered a fractured spine and was paralyzed when his band's rented Ford van rolled over on an icy highway in 2005, dislodging his seat and pinning him against the roof.

After a two-week trial in San Francisco, jurors found Ford Motor Co. at fault for the injuries to Dax Pierson, 38, of Oakland (pictured), founder of the band Subtle.

Pierson, who worked at Amoeba Records in Berkeley, started Subtle in 2001 and was a keyboard player, vocalist and chief composer and arranger. The six-member group had recorded four albums and was starting a tour that was scheduled to take it throughout the United States and Europe at the time of the accident in February 2005.

According to Pierson's lawsuit, the E-350 van was traveling 35 mph along Interstate 80 on a snowy night in rural Iowa when it hit a patch of black ice and rolled over 2 1/2 times. Pierson, belted to a rear passenger seat, was slammed headfirst into the roof when the seat broke loose from the floor, the suit said. No one else was seriously injured.

Pierson suffered multiple fractures of his spine and is a quadriplegic confined to a wheelchair. He still writes and arranges music, with equipment that pushes buttons on a computer keyboard, but needs 24-hour attendant care, his lawyers said.

At the trial, Ford denied that the van was defectively designed, said it met industry standards and contended that Patrick Scott, the band's manager, had been driving too fast. But the jury found that Ford's design of the van had caused Pierson's injuries and that Scott was not negligent.

Jurors awarded Pierson $12.3 million for medical expenses and lost earnings and $6 million for pain and suffering.

"The main problem was the seat," said Thomas Brandi, a lawyer for Pierson. "If the attachment didn't fail, Dax would have been just like the others, uninjured."

Ford said in a statement that it sympathized with the Pierson family but "it is unfair to blame Ford for an accident caused by the driver because he drove the van too fast or the icy weather conditions."