TRAGEDY OF THE DAY: Toyota rollover paralyzes Oklahoma man despite wearing a seatbelt
OKLAHOMA CITY - For Timothy Figg, it was just another night driving his daughter home in his Toyota 4Runner sports-utility vehicle.
The roads were becoming icy, and the temperature dropped as the sun went down. Figg lost control of his vehicle while descending a small hill. The Toyota slid off the road and nearly rolled completely over.
Despite the slow speed of the accident and relatively little force (the driver's-side window didn't even break despite the vehicle coming to rest there), Figg was paralyzed from a cervical spine injury, the result of being ejected from his seat into the car roof. The seatbelt he wore should have protected him from this injury, but it failed catastrophically.
"My seatbelt didn't protect me. I couldn't feel my legs. I asked my daughters where my legs were," Figg said.
Now Figg can't walk. He spends his days in a bed. Bedsores caused him to lose one of his paralyzed legs. After spending some four months in the hospital, Figg had to learn to cope with life as an amputee. He and his wife were divorced shortly after the accident. He'll never walk his daughters down the aisle.
Figg paid a huge price for a poorly designed restraint system. He is speaking out against House Bill 2128 so Oklahomans will know the effect caps will have on Oklahomans who have been injured by faulty products – Oklahomans such as Figg. HB 2128 places a $350,000 cap on noneconomic damages.
"It's not right for the politicians to judge me - for what I've gone through," Figg said, adding: "Oklahomans should trust juries, not politicians."
In many cases across the country, manufacturers knew their products were dangerous but chose to do nothing. Without the threat of litigation, the most important safeguard against dangerous products will be removed, leaving the injured with no way to hold businesses accountable and no way to move on with their shattered lives.
House Bill 2128 has passed the House and awaits a Senate floor vote.
