Ford Pinto Gas Tank Explosion
The Ford Pinto was one of the worse and unethical engineering failures in history.
WHY?
The problem in the design was the placement of the gas tank in the Ford Pinto. The gas tank was placed nine inches from the rear axle. The bad design of the Pinto's fuel tank system increased the probability of the fuel filler pipe disconnecting from the tank during a rear-end collision causing a gas leakage that would lead to dangerous fires.
The Ford Company had already identified the problem and had a solution before the car was released to the public. However, their judgment had been that it would be cheaper to pay for the inconvenience then fix every single car. The cost to fix the problem was only 6 dollars per car and could have saved many lives.
EXAMPLES
When many accidents
occured, the Pinto's reputation
quickly changed from a "carefree car"
into something quite different.
The car was developed over a course of twenty-five months when (around that time) cars would go through at least fourty-three months of development to produce a proper-working car. For Ford to allow this to happen is proof of unethical behavior. The decision to not fix this car contradicts the Engineer's code of ethics to attempt to make more money. In the end they did not.
180 burn deaths - $200,000 each
180 serious burn injuries - $167,000 each
2100 burned vehicles - $700 each
Process