Lawsuit Released Key Internal Auto Industry Documents

Documents prove GM knew its roof design was inadequate, but chose to do nothing.

Bing Lin Duan died in a rollover accident. This pictured interior of a similar van shows the frontseat headrests crushed from the roof. Related Pages Background: NHTSA Compromises Public Safety with Weak Standards (12/5) Lack of $43 Car Improvement Cost Young Woman Her Husband (12/5)

While on a trip to see the famed Northern California redwoods and giant sequoias, Bing Lin Duan suffered severe injuries that eventually were fatal in a car rollover accident. Duan, a retired University of Beijing history professor, was traveling as a passenger in a rented 1999 Chevrolet Astro van with his grandson, daughter and son-in-law, and three of their friends. The driver lost control of the vehicle near Sequoia National Park and the van began to roll over. It rolled three or four times causing the roof to crush in nearly 10 inches. Duan suffered massive head trauma from the roof crush – the accident left him in a vegetative state and he died two years later.

As a result of this case, internal General Motors testing documents from the 1960s and 70s were made public for the first time. These documents revealed that GM knew that roof crush was a factor in deaths and catastrophic injuries as early as 1966.

Additionally, Ben Parr, a retired GM engineer testified for the first time that GM knew this information. Parr said that GM chose to hide it to keep the federal standard for roof strength low instead of spending a small amount of money—estimated to be as little as $43.13 on average—to prevent the death or serious injury of thousands of Americans. He told the jury that in the 1960s, GM conducted drop tests from as little as a few inches. These tests revealed that their vehicles would crush in so far that the occupant space was compromised, leading to the potential for death even to belted passengers.

Updated December 6, 2005