CHRYSLER VAN SEAT FAILS IN FATAL AUTOMOBILE ACCIDENT

 

 Allynne L. Baird, Executrix of the Estate of George N. Baird vs. Chrysler Corporation, a foreign corporation

Circuit Court of Prince William County, Virginia

 

Baird v. Chrysler – In a case remarkably similar to the Pappas case, Mr. Baird was driving home after work on the Washington, D.C. beltway in his 1987 Plymouth Voyager when he was struck from behind by a pickup truck. Mr. Baird, a computer expert with a Washington area company, lost control of the van, careened across the highway flat on his back after his driver’s seat collapsed, and was struck by a tractor-trailer and killed. The seat design defect in this case was similar to the one in the Pappas case.  fter nearly two years of pretrial discovery, Chrysler voluntarily settled this case three days before the trial was to begin for $2,000,000.  The case was set to be tried in Virginia and the settlement was one of the largest in Virginia at the time it was settled.