LINCOLN (AP) - The parents of a 19-year-old woman who was murdered while trying to change a flat tire want Ford Motor Co. and Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. held liable in the death.
The Nebraska Supreme Court was to hear the case today stemming from the 2000 murder of Amy Stahlecker, a Wayne State College freshman who became stranded on U.S. Highway 275 west of Omaha because of a blown tire.
Prosecutors said Richard Cook, 36, of Omaha, picked up Stahlecker and later shot her. Cook was convicted of first-degree murder, and is serving a life sentence.
Susan and Dale Stahlecker claim in the lawsuit that a Firestone Wilderness AT tire failed on the 1997 Ford Explorer driven by their daughter, setting off the events ended in her murder.
The lawsuit claimed that Firestone was negligent in making the defective tire and that Ford was negligent in putting it on one of its vehicles.
The flat tire "put Amy at great risk and left her in a situation where she was ultimately abducted, terrorized, raped and murdered," the lawsuit alleged.
Dodge County District Judge F.A. Gossett III dismissed both Ford Motor Co. and Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. from the lawsuit. Gossett ruled that Nebraska law shields Ford and Bridgestone/Firestone from liability unless they had "specific and actual notice of danger" to Amy Stahlecker.
He also ruled the actions for which Cook was convicted "are not the type of harm that either Ford or Bridgestone/Firestone could foresee or protect against."
Gossett's ruling left Cook as the only defendant in the wrongful death lawsuit.
Nashville, Tenn.-based Bridgestone/Firestone, the U.S. subsidiary of Japan's Bridgestone Corp., has recalled millions of ATX, ATX II and Wilderness AT tires since August 2000 because federal safety officials found they were prone to losing their tread while traveling at high speeds.
At least 271 U.S. traffic deaths have been linked to the failed tires, most of which were sold as original equipment on the Ford Explorer.
"When Ford and Firestone introduce and then silently allow products to remain in the stream of Nebraska commerce during a period of time when it is known .... that their products pose an unreasonable risk of harm to the user, Ford and Firestone are in violation of the very trust our citizens place in and grant to them by virtue of our state laws and policies," said the Stahlecker's lawyer, Richard Rensch.
Cook testified that he and Amy Stahlecker had consensual sex after he stopped to help her at 3 a.m. on April 29, 2000. Cook said a friend of his killed Stahlecker after she refused his sexual advances.
That friend testified that Cook confessed to him about killing Stahlecker.
Her body was found under the Elkhorn River bridge at Waterloo, about 15 miles west of Omaha. ---
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Nebraska Supreme Court: http://court.nol.org/
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