Opinion ID: 2767478
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Expert Testimony of Design Defect

Text: To support their claim, the Duncans designated Geoffrey Mahon (Mahon), a mechanical engineer, as an expert in airbag design to testify that the 2008 Hyundai Tiburon was defectively designed. Mahon expressed the opinion that if Hyundai had located the sensor for the side airbag system on the B-pillar of the vehicle (the pillar where the front door closes), approximately 4 to 6 inches from the floor, instead of on the cross-member underneath the driver's seat, the side airbag would have deployed. Therefore, according to Mahon, the location of the side airbag sensor on the cross-member rendered the 2008 Tiburon unreasonably dangerous.
Prior to trial, Hyundai moved to exclude Mahon's opinions as having an insufficient foundation because Mahon did not conduct any analysis to determine whether the side airbag would have deployed if the sensor had been located where Mahon proposed. When deposed, Mahon testified that in reaching his opinion, he relied upon a computer-aided engineering study conducted by Hyundai in 1999 in which Hyundai analyzed 14 potential locations for the side airbag sensor, including a location on the B-pillar that was 10 to 12 inches from the 3 floor.2 Mahon did not adopt any of the 14 locations analyzed by Hyundai for his placement of the side airbag sensor, but determined that a location on the B-pillar approximately 4 to 6 inches from the floor would be [his] first choice. He further explained that since Hyundai did not analyze the location he proposed, he would have to run tests to verify that that's just the right location, but based on [Hyundai's] evidence of the somewhat higher B-pillar location, that looks very promising. While Mahon believed the best location for the sensor was at the B-pillar, he testified he did no testing to determine if the side airbag would have deployed in Gage's accident had the sensor been placed at any other location. Q . . . Have you done any test or calculation to show that some other sensing system location if used in the Duncan Tiburon would have caused the side air bag to fire in this crash? A I have not done any tests, I think as I indicated earlier, nor have I done any serious calculations. What I've done is look at the signal at the B-pillar and the signal at the location and concluded that I got a much more robust and timely signal at the B-pillar. (Emphasis added.) The circuit court denied Hyundai's motion to exclude Mahon's testimony, and he was permitted 2 Based on the 1999 location study and subsequent crash testing, Hyundai decided to place the sensor on the crossmember underneath the driver's seat. 4 to express his opinions at trial, over Hyundai's objections.3
At trial, Mahon testified that Hyundai was not required under Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) to install a side-impact airbag system in the 2008 Tiburon, and that the 2008 Tiburon would have complied with the FMVSS for side impact 4 protection without any side airbag system. Nevertheless, according to Mahon, if a manufacturer decides to put in an airbag system and tell people there's a safety system in this car that's going to work a certain way and then it doesn't work? It's got to work. I mean, that's just improper. Mahon's initial impression of the airbag system was that the airbag should have gone off, but upon further investigation, he concluded that the system was acting as designed so this indicates that it was designed improperly, because this is a crash where you really need an airbag. Mahon agreed that the 2008 Tiburon, with the side airbag system, complied with FMVSS 214, the standard specifically 3 The circuit court ruled on Hyundai's motion to exclude Mahon's opinion prior to the first trial and adopted its ruling prior to the second trial. 4 As Mahon explained, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is responsible for regulating the safety performance of motor vehicles and has established the FMVSS as minimum standards with which all vehicles sold in the United States must comply. 5 related to side impact protection. He further acknowledged that the 2008 Tiburon did reasonably well when Hyundai conducted 22 crash tests in which it ran the vehicle into different types of barriers, at different speeds and angles, with the side airbag sensor located on the cross-member underneath the driver's seat.5 In Mahon's opinion, however, the side airbag would have deployed in Gage's accident if the sensor for the side airbag system had been located on the B-pillar, approximately 4 to 6 inches from the floor. According to Mahon, this was true even though the sensor on the cross-member underneath the driver's seat was closer to the point of impact than it would have been if the sensor had been located in the B-pillar because Hyundai's 1999 location study showed that there was a much better signal on the B-pillar.6 In Mahon's view, therefore, the 2008 Tiburon was defectively designed and unreasonably 5 Mahon did not dispute that the side airbag system in the 2008 Tiburon performed as designed and offered good protection when deployed. 6 According to Mahon, Hyundai's concerns with oscillations and other noise at outboard locations such as the B-pillar were unfounded because we've been dealing with those noisy locations since the 1980s, and he discounted Hyundai's determination that the B-pillar location had poor responsive characteristics to door impact. 6 dangerous because the sensor for the side airbag system was not located on the B-pillar. Consistent with his deposition testimony, Mahon testified at trial that he did not perform an analysis to determine whether the side airbag in the 2008 Tiburon would have deployed if the sensor was in a different location but relied upon the results of the location study undertaken by Hyundai in 1999. Mahon conceded that the location on the B-pillar considered by Hyundai was located 10 to 12 inches from the floor, and he had no data demonstrating the performance of a sensor located on the B-pillar 4 to 6 inches from the floor. He further agreed that because the airbag system must work quickly, that is the sensor system must decide within 15 milliseconds of a crash event whether an airbag is required and then inflate the airbag in 15 to 50 milliseconds, the location of the sensor is important to the overall crash sensing system such that inches, and even increments smaller than inches, matter in the determination of the location of the sensor. Though Mahon testified that the vehicle's crash sensing system is a combination of the structure of the vehicle, the sensors themselves, and then any algorithm . . . working together to make a decision whether or not this event is worthy of an airbag, he acknowledged that he had not performed any tests to determine whether any different sensor location, 7 structure, or mathematical algorithm would have caused the side airbag to deploy in Gage's crash. Q Have you done any test or calculation to show that some other side sensor location if used in the Duncan Tiburon would have caused the side airbag to fire in this crash? A Based on my industry experience, my analysis says yes. Have I done a calculation? No. Q Have you done any test? A Of course not. Q . . . Have you done any test or calculation to show that some other structure, if used in the Duncan Tiburon, would have caused the side airbag to fire in this crash? A. Haven't done it. Q Have you done any test or calculation to show that some other algorithm, if used in the Duncan Tiburon, would have caused the side airbag to fire in this crash? A Well, in fact I think it would. I haven't done that work. (Emphasis added.) Relying instead on his industry experience, Mahon testified that the data in Hyundai's location study spoke to [him] . . . [a]s one skilled in the art.