22-year-old Payton Lewis and his girlfriend Samantha Ely died in a fiery single-vehicle accident on Dec. 9, 2006 and Ford Motor Company is charged with their deaths. Lawyers hired by Payton’s mother Delicia Lewis filed a wrongful death suit against Ford Motor Company Thursday claiming that a faulty switch in Payton’s car caused his untimely death.
Plaintiff’s counsel have enlisted the help of an automotive fire safety expert, but more expert witness testimony is anticipated. JacksonvilleDailyProgress.com reports Lewis’s attorneys stating:
There is a lot of science and engineering that goes into all of this… A biomechanical engineer may be needed to determine whether Payton was killed on impact or not. There was absolutely no intrusion into the driver’s side of the passenger compartment during the crash, so we think the impact itself was very survivable.