- Bay Area Citizen

05/07/2008- It’s a situation all parents hope they’ll never have to contemplate - which kid to save from death first.

Christi Ault’s eyes fill with tears as she thinks about how close she came to that situation last Sunday, when her Ford F-150 truck spontaneously exploded into flames only an hour and a half before her three children would have been strapped into their car seats.

“It’s just horrible to think about, you know?” she said. “Who do you pick?”

The incident was terrifying enough, as the family was sound asleep in their Seabrook home last Sunday morning when the 6-year-old daughter’s bedroom began to fill with smoke billowing up from the blazing truck in the driveway.

Ault is grateful for their neighbor, who woke the family by pounding on the door, screaming that their truck was on fire. Without that wake-up call, Ault isn’t sure she would have been able to get her daughter out in time.

Ault and her husband had bought the truck just a month and a half earlier and were not aware that the 1998 truck’s cruise control switch was part of a large Ford recall - a potentially dangerous piece of information to overlook.

The previous owners, whom the Aults located through Craigslist.com, were apparently either unaware of the recall or chose not to inform the Aults about the problem. Ault is angry, but not sure the former owners are to blame, although she said a friend has received numerous letters about recalls on his Ford vehicle.

Regardless of who’s to blame, the fire has left the family with one car and no savings to buy another one, because they spent their savings on the truck to avoid going into debt.

And, Ford isn’t likely to pay for a new truck and may not even pay for the damage to the Aults’ house.

Ault spoke with David Ennis, a lawyer with Ennis and Ennis, PA, who later told The Citizen that his firm has been able to recover compensation from Ford for damaged homes and other results of the switch fires, but he said it wouldn’t happen without litigation.

Wes Sherwood, a spokesman for Ford Motor Co., said an insurance company would have to investigate the incident and determine the cause of the fire, and if it turned out to be caused by the switch under recall, Ford, would then conduct its own investigation before considering compensation.

But Ault doesn’t think Allstate, her insurance company, will even do that much since the car was paid off and had only liablity insurance.

Ford is not liable for any damages, Sherwood said, if the company can determine the owner of the vehicle received notification of the recall and did not act on it.

Sherwood said recall notices for the 1998 Ford F-150s were sent out in August 2007, after the faulty switches had been in the vehicles for nearly a decade, adding that it was a “safety recall,” but did not mention the risk of the vehicle catching fire.

Sherwood said Ford did not have any reports of that particular group of vehicles, which includes Christi Ault’s truck, catching on fire due to the bad cruise control switch, so the recall did not mention it.

Previous recalls did mention the risk of fire, he said, but only because Ford had received “confirmed reports” of those types of vehicles catching fire.

Sherwood said Ford is not aware of any confirmed cases of death or injury caused by a switch-related fire, but mentioned that Ford is facing litigation from customers over deaths and injuries they say were caused by the fires.

Ennis confirmed that, saying he has a client whose 20-year old son died while sleeping in his Ford vehicle and another client who crushed her leg jumping from a rooftop to escape a house fire caused by a vehicle parked in the garage.

Sherwood said current owners of the vehicles would have received the recall notice last August because Ford uses databases to keep tabs on who owns the vehicles.

But Ennis was skeptical that current owners are really being notified since his firm has been inundated with these cases since 2004.

“I just got three calls about these fires today, and the calls are not slowing down,” he said.

“ In the last year we’ve seen more claims.”

His personal opinion, Ennis said, is that Ford has been too slow in recalling all of the vehicles with faulty parts, indicated by the fact that Ault’s vehicle wasn’t recalled until almost ten years after it was made. Ennis said over the last year the number of Ford vehicles under recall has risen from 3.5 million to 10 million.

Ault said she won’t try to and is not even sure she could get her money back from the former owners, but she has learned something.

“I’ll never buy from a private party again, because at least with a dealership I would have someone to hold liable,” she said. “And I’ll never buy another Ford.”

Most importantly, though, Ault said she wants other Ford owners to be aware.

“I just want people to know about this problem so the same thing doesn’t happen to them, so they can get it fixed before their car explodes,” she said.

To check for open recalls on a vehicle, visit www.carfax.com, which sells full vehicle history reports, or visit www.safetyforum.com to find lists of current recalls for all products on the market.

If you have experienced problems with your Ford, Lincoln or Mercury car, SUV or truck or have experienced a Ford, Lincoln or Mercury car, SUV or truck fire contact the lawyers of Ennis & Ennis, P.A. about a Ford fire lawsuit. Ennis & Ennis, P.A. specializes personal injury and product liability cases. With offices throughout Florida and in Washington DC we are taking cases nationwide. Fill out our free case evaluation form today to find out if you are eligible for compensation