Opinion ID: 537057
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Was the Design Defect a Proximate Cause of the Accident?

Text: 20 Not only was the existence of a design defect at issue in this trial; the parties also disputed whether the alleged defect caused the accident. Again, the evidence was contradictory. Appellants contended that the driver, Mr. Roy, was traveling at approximately 55 miles per hour when he turned sharply to the left to avoid a dog, causing the van to roll. They claimed that the van never left the pavement and that any vehicle that would roll on a smooth pavement under those circumstances did so as the result of a design defect. Mr. Roy and two eye witnesses, Wade Fitzgerald and Jerry Jardee, all testified that the van never left the pavement. 21 VW painted a different picture. It contended that Mr. Roy fell asleep while driving and drifted onto the unimproved portion of the highway. When he awoke, he turned abruptly to the left to return to the road. The combination of the ruts created by the wheels digging into the dirt and the edge of the pavement tripped 4 the van. Both parties agree that the fact that a vehicle rolls after being tripped is not indicative of a design defect. 22 VW introduced evidence to impugn the testimony of the Roys' witnesses concerning where the roll began. They cited testimony by Mr. Roy indicating that he did not know whether the vehicle ever left the paved surface. Further, Carr Thomson, a professional surveyor and licensed civil engineer in the State of Texas, testified that, from their distant position in an oncoming lane, Mr. Fitzgerald and Mr. Jardee could not have observed whether the van left the paved surface of the highway. He suggested that the elevation of the highway and the crown of the surface of the roadway made it impossible to observe the surface of the highway, the lane markings on the highway, the adjoining paved shoulder, or the adjoining gravel shoulder. The Roys did not dispute that the highway markings were not visible from the vantage point of the eye witnesses, but contended nevertheless that Mr. Fitzgerald and Mr. Jardee could have determined in which lane the van was traveling. 23 VW also presented the testimony of Dr. John Habberstad who purported to reconstruct what happened during the accident. In developing his accident reconstruction, Dr. Habberstad relied on the notes of John Ferguson, a Texas trooper who investigated the accident, and on photographs taken by Raymond Gesch, the Chief of Police for Sonora, Texas. Dr. Habberstad's reconstruction supported VW's theory of the accident. 24 The Roy's, in turn, challenged the validity of Dr. Habberstad's reconstruction. They cited Dr. Habberstad's testimony that he considered only that evidence supporting his theory and ignored that which did not. They further noted that Trooper Ferguson's testimony at trial was substantially different from his deposition testimony where he stated, I believe [the van] began to overturn on the white shoulder stripe which divides the improved shoulder with the main traveled portion of the roadway. He did not change his opinion to conclude that the van rolled while on the unimproved shoulder until after conferring with Dr. Habberstad. 25 In addition, the parties disputed the cause of the fire. VW's experts testified that the van's fuel system was well-designed, that Mr. Roy's repairs caused the fire, and that there would have been no fire had the gas cap been in place. The Roy's experts concluded that the van's tap valve was susceptible to clogging, that Mr. Roy's actions were a good temporary repair, and that the fire would have occurred even with the gas cap in place. Again, both sides presented significant evidence to support their theories.