Audi Ordered to Pay Woman Injured in Crash

A jury has awarded a Los Angeles woman about $3.5 million for injuries she received when her Audi automobile went out of control five years ago and crashed after she inadvertently engaged the accelerator and brake pedals at the same time.

The Superior Court jury award, returned Wednesday for Diane Rose, 53, who suffered brain damage in the crash on Benedict Canyon Drive, was by far the biggest award against the auto maker, which has been involved in a number of alleged runaway acceleration cases against its controversial Audi 5000.

Audi has maintained that sudden acceleration accidents were caused by driver error and that, moreover, the current case could not be classified as such, but rather pedal confusion on the driver’s part.

But Rose’s attorney, Moses Leovits, argued that unwanted acceleration can occur either from a stationary position or when a moving car suddenly surprises the driver by quickly gaining speed.

On May 3, 1982, he said, Rose was on her way to an aerobic dance class. While driving down a hill on Benedict Canyon Drive, he said, she lost control of her 1981 Audi 5000 when her foot inadvertently engaged the accelerator and brake pedals at the same time and hit a brick wall. This occurred, Lebovits argued during the trial, because Audi had poorly designed the position of the car’s brake pedal, placing it “too close” to the accelerator.

“The pedal cluster defect caused unintended acceleration which, in turn, led to her inability to control the vehicle,” he argued.

Following a two-month trial, the jury voted 10 to 2 that there was a defect in the car and 9 to 3 for the monetary award, after subtracting 25% because Rose was not wearing a seat belt.

Audi argued that Lebovits was wrong in his perception of what constituted runaway acceleration. The automaker said this could occur through driver error when a car accelerated out of control from a standing position, but not when a car already was moving.

“There is no defect in that auto that could account for unintended acceleration,” said Joseph Bennett, public relations manager for Troy, Mich.-based Audi of America. “We believe it’s pedal confusion by the operators.”

Bennett said Audi will appeal the award.

The verdict followed a recent New Jersey verdict in which a jury awarded $10,000 against Audi in another case of alleged unintended acceleration.

A nonprofit consumer watchdog group, the Center for Auto Safety in Washington, hailed the Los Angeles jury award.

“It comes one step closer to holding Audi ultimately responsible for the sudden acceleration phenomenon,” said Jeff Schroeder of the group’s vehicle safety staff.

Schroeder called Audi’s defense the “fat foot theory--that their drivers are more inept than most, and that they hit both gas and brake at the same time.”

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been studying the allegations of unintended acceleration in the Audi 5000 since August, 1986.