KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Beth Woodruff grew added afraid with anniversary casual minute. Her bedmate should accept accustomed home with their two adolescent children. He should accept answered his phone.
When a acquaintance told her article was activity on at the admission to their Knox County subdivision, Woodruff rushed outside. Six years later, the images she saw still comedy like a slideshow in her mind.
Her husband’s car was abominably mangled. Someone captivated her 4-year-old daughter, bloodied, covered in bottle and crying. A accumulation of strangers pulled her 6-year-old son from the blow and laid him down.
“I can bethink him attractive broken,” Woodruff told Knox News. “He aloof looked like a baby that somebody had befuddled on the ground.”
Woodruff abstruse her husband, Ben, had been killed, and her son, Ethan, had suffered a adverse academician abrasion that would change aggregate about their lives. She abstruse the man who acquired the bones was a four-time bashed disciplinarian who had taken drugs and hopped abaft the caster again. And she abstruse article ability accept gone amiss with Ethan’s bench belt, abrogation him accessible during a adverse crash.
It didn’t booty continued for the burst disciplinarian to plead guilty and receive a 20-year bastille sentence. But a bizarre acknowledged activity over Ethan’s bench belt continued on for years, pitting his mother adjoin one of the world's better auto manufacturers and adopting questions about whether added parents ability be aback agreement their adolescent accouchement at risk.
Ethan Woodruff suffered abiding academician blow in a 2013 car wreck. His mother's attorneys altercate he abiding his injuries aback a Ford bench belt extender, acclimated in affiliation with a booster seat, broke. (Photo: Provided / Beth Woodruff)
In March 2013, Ben Woodruff bought a new car. With it came a new problem.
Car manufacturers had amorphous recessing bench belt buckles to lie alike in the aback seats of vehicles. This industry change fabricated bench belts safer for adults, an architect testified, but accouchement in booster seats generally begin it difficult, if not impossible, to catch themselves in. Some parents ability accept to move the booster bench – their adolescent in it – to catch or alleviate every time they got in or out of the car.
Ben ran into this affair with Ethan in his 2012 Nissan Juke. He aggregate his annoyance with his wife, said he would go online to hunt a band-aid and appear he had begin a fix.
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"It was such an accustomed thing," Beth Woodruff recalled. "You buy the thing, you put the affair in the car."
After the crash, she abstruse her bedmate had purchased a bench belt extender – formed with Ford Motor’s logo and advised for assertive Ford cars – from a third-party website that awash it to him for the amiss agent and the amiss purpose.
Seat belt extenders, about fabricated of a metal tongue and catch affiliated by a band of webbing, are advised to be acclimated by beyond bodies who can’t amplitude a normal-length bench belt about their bodies to catch in. They are not meant to be acclimated with adolescent car seats, and best auto manufacturers absolutely acquaint that accomplishing so can advance to austere abrasion or death.
That’s not what Jay Solomon told his customers.
A photograph independent in cloister annal shows the bench belt extender at affair in the case. (Photo: Travis Dorman / News Sentinel)
Solomon, a 20-something from Atlanta, awash articles online. With no accordant training or experience, he peddled seat belt extenders, aboriginal affairs them from China afore award a antecedent afterpiece to home – a Ford dealership employee.
Solomon met Derek Martin through eBay, area Martin was affairs extenders. Martin, a self-described “bigger guy,” accomplished he could accomplish money off extenders afterwards he bought one for his Mustang from a Ford dealership in Toccoa, Georgia, a boondocks of about 8,500 people. Martin formed at the genitalia adverse there from 2004 until 2011.
Although Ford’s activity dictates dealerships accord extenders for chargeless to the few barter who charge them, Martin testified in a degradation he never accustomed any instruction about the administration of bench belt extenders or the dangers of their misuse. Whenever a chump came into the dealership and asked for one, Martin said, the dealership would advertise it, “no questions asked.”
In 2009, Martin asked his administrator if he could adjustment extenders from Ford and advertise them online. According to Martin, the administrator said, “Sure. I don’t see any botheration with it.” So Martin began affairs extenders in aggregate for 2 cents apiece and affairs them on eBay for about $15 each. He purchased them through the dealership until 2012, alike afterwards he abdicate alive there.
Both Bench Belt Extender Pros and Booster Catch advertised bench belt extenders for use with booster seats. (Photo: Provided / Cloister records)
Martin awash Solomon a blazon of extender advised abandoned for the advanced seats of 2000-2007 Ford Focuses. Solomon resold extenders through his websites, including Added of Me to Adulation (“the arch cast for articles for plus-sized people”), Booster Catch (a now-defunct website that advertised extenders for use with booster seats) and Bench Belt Extender Pros.
Visitors to the Bench Belt Extender Pros website could baddest the accomplish and archetypal of their vehicle, as able-bodied as the basement position for which they capital an extender. They wouldn’t necessarily accept an extender that had been advised for that vehicle, however. Solomon conducted his own analysis about which extenders fit in which vehicles and beatific barter articles he anticipation would work.
"Just because a accidental argot clicks into a catch doesn't beggarly that that's a full-strength latch," Roger Burnett, a Ford engineer, testified in a degradation in Woodruff's lawsuit.
In 2013, cloister annal show, Bench Belt Extender Pros advertised extenders as "excellent" and "ideal" for booster seats. The company's website displayed a mother's aglow affidavit alongside a photo of animated kids askance into booster seats with extenders. Multiple reviews, purportedly accounting by parents, accepted the product.
"It was adamantine to admission the rear bench belt tucked in the bench abutting to my grandson's car seat," one analysis read. "The addendum apparent that botheration and he can catch up by himself afterwards my accepting to clamber beyond him in the rear seat."
Ford has accepted for added than a decade that parents accept abolished bench belt extenders and dealerships accept broadcast them afterwards oversight, yet the aggregation has taken little activity to ensure their safe use, Woodruff's attorneys declared in a motion opposing a move by Ford to abolish itself from the lawsuit.
Customer emails appearance Ford admiral abstruse as far aback as 2007 that parents attempted to use extenders to catch their accouchement into booster seats, the motion says. Internal communications appearance Ford accomplished in 2008 that some dealerships had been acclimation ample numbers of extenders and reselling them online.
Ford issued a announcement to all dealerships reminding them of the activity that extenders should be ordered abandoned for barter who charge them and never sold.
In 2012, several higher-ups at Ford accustomed an bearding letter admonishing of the affaire at Toccoa Ford Lincoln Mercury. Afterwards an analysis revealed the dealership had ordered added than 96,000 bench belt extenders over a four-year amount – a massive amount compared to added dealerships – Ford admiral began asking, "Who is Derek Martin?"
According to emails amid Ford officials, Derek Martin's administration at Toccoa Ford Lincoln Mercury knew he was acclimation bench belt extenders in aggregate aloof to resell them online, but they anticipation he wasn't breaking any rules. (Photo: Provided / Cloister records)
The probe found Martin's above administration knew about his affairs but didn't anticipate he had broken any rules. A administrator alike witnessed him field a alarm from a Ford official in Atlanta afterwards he ordered so abounding extenders at already he "overloaded the arrangement and shut it down." Martin testified that aback he told the addition he was reselling the extenders, she said accomplished – aloof don't adjustment added than what's in stock.
The analysis articular about three dozen dealerships that had anniversary awash added than 3,000 extenders over the accomplished four years.
"Proving its abandoned affair was monetary, all of the accomplish Ford took at this time centered about preventing others from profiting off Ford's chump betrayal affairs – not preventing accouchement from accepting afflicted or killed," Woodruff's attorneys, Dan Stanley and Richard Collins, wrote. "Indeed, the abandoned absolute change was to the packaging of its bench belt extenders – not to acquaint adjoin use with adolescent car and booster seats – but to state: NOT FOR RESALE – MUST BE PROVIDED TO CUSTOMER AT NO CHARGE."
Six months afterwards Ford admiral apparent Bench Belt Extender Pros, Ben Woodruff visited the website that advertised extenders as "perfect" for booster seats, ordered an extender for the aback bench of his 2012 Nissan Juke and was alien one for the advanced bench of a Ford Focus.
Nissan does not accomplish extenders for the aback seats of its vehicles.
On Aug. 23, 2013, Ben and Beth Woodruff larboard assignment in Pigeon Forge and headed back to Knoxville in abstracted cars. The couple, who had been affiliated for 11 years, commuted to and from the day-tripper mecca, area Ben formed as a clear artist for Ole Smoky Moonshine and Beth as an appointment administrator at the allure WonderWorks.
Beth planned to booty Ethan and Kate to Nashville to bless her mother's birthday. Ben was declared to aces up the kids from daycare, then accommodated her at home.
On the way, bedmate and wife chock-full ancillary by ancillary at a red ablaze in Seymour.
The Woodruff ancestors was burst by an accident. (Photo: Submitted / Beth Woodruff)
"We formed bottomward the windows," Beth recalled. "He said, 'Hey sexy,' and I said hey back. I said, 'I'll see you at home,' and he said, 'OK, I adulation you.' I said, 'I adulation you too.' "
She sighed. "You never apperceive aback it's activity to be the aftermost affair you say to somebody."
Ben was cat-and-mouse to about-face into his subdivision on Austin Lane, his kids sitting in the aback seat, aback an SUV barreled beyond the centermost band at 65 mph and airtight bang into his car. His Juke spun into the aisle of an advancing minivan, which comatose into the driver's ancillary and beatific the car skidding to a stop in the average of the road.
A motorist who came aloft the arena and rushed to advice climbed aloft the burst Juke and peered through the burst bottle of the sunroof. He saw Ben angled over the wheel, dead, and Kate in her car seat, alive but in shock. He formed with added bystanders to pry accessible the driver's ancillary aperture and chargeless the 4-year-old from the aback seat. She was annoyed up, aching and bruised, but not actively injured.
Then they saw Ethan, benumbed and lying on his larboard side, his arch adherent amid Kate's car bench and the aback bench of the Juke. Assemblage said it looked as if the high bisected of his anatomy had collapsed forward, limp, while his hips remained at atomic partially in his booster seat.
Ethan suffered a burst femur and abiding academician damage, abundant of it to his aboveboard lobe. Alike afterwards spending months in the hospital and years in concrete therapy, he will never be the same.
Scott Spangler (Photo: Provided / Knox County jail)
Blood tests showed the disciplinarian of the SUV who beyond the centermost line, Scott Spangler, had Xanax and cocaine in his arrangement at the time of the crash. Spangler, who had at atomic four above-mentioned DUI aesthetics in Tennessee, pleaded accusable in April 2014 to accuse including aggravated vehicular homicide. He accustomed a 20-year book and is acceptable for parole.
In July of that year, Beth Woodruff sued Spangler, Ford Motor and Bench Belt Extender Pros in Knox County Circuit Court. The accusation claims the bench belt extender failed, leaving Ethan amoral and caught during the crash, and blames the companies for declining to acquaint of the danger of application extenders with booster seats. Woodruff seeks tens of millions of dollars in damages.
Over the accomplished bristles years, attorneys circuitous in the case have pointed fingers at new companies who accept again been sued, at Spangler for causing the blast in the aboriginal abode and at the Woodruffs themselves for break application the extender with a booster seat. Acknowledged back-and-forth has abounding 29 blubbery folders in the City-County architecture in city Knoxville. Lawyers accept appeared in cloister so generally that at the alpha of a hearing, Adjudicator Bill Ailor kicked off affairs by saying, "Welcome home."
Several companies – Autoliv, which manufactures extenders for Ford; Travelers Insurance, which accustomed the Nissan Juke to be destroyed during litigation; and Bench Belt Extender Pros, which awash the extender to the Woodruffs – agreed to settle, admitting abounding of those capacity abide beneath seal. Still arresting themselves are Ford and Dorel Juvenile Group, which fabricated the booster bench acclimated by the family.
If the case goes to balloon abutting summer as scheduled, capacity will be in dispute. Ford denies all claims in the accusation and has agilely dedicated itself. Based on cloister records, the aggregation apparently will alarm assemblage and experts to deny the extender broke, say Ethan was still aseptic afterwards the crash and altercate added parties are added to accusation for his injuries. Ford's attorneys apparently will advance that it can't be captivated accountable for a failure-to-warn affirmation in this case and that Ben Woodruff "was warned – acutely and repeatedly."
A admonishing on the extender itself said not to use it "unless it is physically appropriate in adjustment to abrasion the vehicle's assurance belt," and the chiral for the Juke stated, "Never use bench belt extenders to install adolescent restraints." But the chiral for the booster bench read, "If your agent belt is too short, acquaintance your agent banker for a bench belt extender," and Bench Belt Extender Pros alleged extenders "perfect" for booster seats.
Ailor has dealt three cogent assault to Ford. The adjudicator addled bottomward Ford's attack to abolish itself from the lawsuit. He ordered the aggregation to pay Woodruff's apostle fees afterwards award Ford assembly carefully withheld abstracts during the analysis process. And he ruled the board will not apprehend affirmation of Spangler's crime because it's irrelevant, abrogation added time to focus on Ford's actions.
An apostle for Ford told Knox News the aggregation does not animadversion on awaiting litigation. Neither Martin nor Solomon – who confused to Hungary and claimed he awash his accumulated assets to his brother-in-law afterwards the blast – responded to again requests for comment.
Ethan, 13, Beth, and Kate Woodruff, 10, (from left) comedy the Game of Activity at their home Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2019 in Nashville, Tenn. (Photo: Courtney Pedroza / Tennessean.com)
Everything about their lives has changed, Woodruff said. Afterwards the crash, she couldn't booty affliction of Ethan and Kate alone, so she confused into a house in Nashville with her parents and grandparents. Because of Ethan's needs, she hasn't been able to authority bottomward a full-time job, so she works allotment time for accompany who know she needs flexibility.
Ethan Woodruff, 13, plays soccer at his home Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2019 in Nashville, Tenn. (Photo: Courtney Pedroza / Tennessean.com)
Ethan, 13, has agitation attached his shoes. Alike at his home, area he's best accustomed with the terrain, he can't airing far afterwards bouncing off a cabinet, grabbing a wall or falling down. He gets on all fours to clamber up stairs and sits to abscond bottomward them. Alfresco the house, he has to use a ambler or contrarily recruit advice to break upright.
Ethan's academician has adversity processing area his anatomy is in space, so he's abnormally accident-prone. Speaking takes effort, and circuitous tasks – such as demography a analysis at academy – can be a nightmare.
Still, Ethan is not clashing best 13-year-old boys. He loves video games, arena sports and is "rambunctious," his mother said.
Woodruff said she's had to apprentice a "new vocabulary" back the crash. She's abstruse about abundant apprenticeship programs and how best to apostle for Ethan so he has a adventitious to advance in school. She's abstruse about the development of allowance and how best to accomplish the arrangement assignment for her son. She's also relearned the average academy curriculum, as she has to advice Ethan with appointment about every day.
Ethan Woodruff, 13, plays with his sister Kate, 10, at their home Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2019 in Nashville, Tenn. (Photo: Courtney Pedroza / Tennessean.com)
It's exhausting, Woodruff said, to chase every detail of the acknowledged activity she's angry up in, to consistently revisit the affliction day of her life. But she has ashore with the accusation because she worries added parents could be putting their accouchement in harm's way.
"My affair is how abounding added parents out there are in the aforementioned bearings we were in?" she said. "They buy a new car or buy a new car seat, acquisition a problem, anticipate that they’ve begin a band-aid to the botheration and again are active about cerebration that they’ve fabricated the safe best for their kid. How abounding bodies are accomplishing that? I don’t know."
Reach Travis Dorman at travis.dorman@knoxnews.com. Chase him on Twitter @travdorman.
Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2019/12/24/mom-blames-fords-seat-belt-extender-for-son-brain-damage/2735617001/
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