Company Action
Ford remained non-compliant with the suggested safety measures through the first half of the 1970's. However, attention from the Mother Jones article, increased public scrutiny, and increasingly stringent safety laws, (most notably a 1976 NHTSA law which implemented stricter standards for gas tank leakage), compelled Ford to act. Subsequently , on June 9, 1978, Ford announced a recall 1.5 million Pintos that were made from 1971 to 1976. (Birsch p.5) The estimated cost of the eventual recall was "somewhere between twenty and forty million dollars." (Birsch p.5)
Victim Action
In September of 1978 Ford Motor Company was indicted by an Indiana Grand Jury for three felony counts of reckless homicide. The case resulted from a rear-end collision between a van and a Ford Pinto. In the car were three girls, who all burned to death. People on the scene claimed that the collision occurred at a relatively low speed. The significance of the Indiana trial was that it was the first time a corporation had been charged with criminal violations rather than simply civil violations. When the trial concluded in March of 1980 Ford was judged to be innocent of all charges. The last Pinto was produced in 1980. (Birsch p.5-6)
(Photo: http://www.mass.gov/legis/bills/senate/st00/gavel.jpg)
