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Jury orders GM to pay
$18.7 million in injury accident
By Brian Knox
Wise County Messenger
 A Wise County jury has found General Motors partially responsible for the injuries of a Plano woman and has ordered the company to pay $18.7 million in damages.
The law firm Simpson, Boyd and Powers represented Stacey Burry, who sustained severe brain damage as a result of a January 2003 accident in Sulpher Springs.
The case was heard in Wise County, Mike Simpson explained, because a case involving a national company like General Motors can be heard in a county where a GM dealership is located.
The two-vehicle accident involved a 2001 Chevrolet Suburban and an 18-wheeler. The jury found that the failure of a side impact air bag to deploy in the Suburban during the crash caused Burry’s injuries.
The jury awarded $38.2 million in damages, but they found Burry’s mother, the driver of the vehicle, 51 percent responsible for the injuries and GM 49 percent responsible. That means GM was only responsible to pay for 49 percent of the damages.
“When this vehicle was put together, there was heavy competition by SUV manufacturers to provide these vehicles with side airbags,” Simpson said. “..(GM) put in side airbags that didn’t always deploy.”
Simpson argued that the injuries occurred when Burry hit her head on the area between the front and back doors - an area where the airbag should have been had it deployed.
Simpson also said the problem with the airbags would not cost much money to fix.
“We think they could have fixed the problem for $8 (per vehicle),” he said. “It is not financially prohibitive to fix this problem.”
As a result of the accident, Simpson said, Burry’s family has been faced with medical bills totaling millions of dollars.
Attorneys with the law firm Hartline, Dacus, Barger, Dreyer & Kern - GM’s counsel team - argued that the accident and the injuries were caused by the driver of the Suburban, Carol Reid. Reid crossed the center line while exiting from an Interstate roadway in front of the 18-wheeler.
Simpson said the trial and the verdict were important because this was the first case in the nation involving GM and the side air bag issue to go to trial, although several other cases are pending.
The verdict was affirmed by the Court of Appeals.
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