Tragic Indifference: One Man's Battle with the Auto Industry over the Dangers of SUVs [Hardcover]

Adam Penenberg (Author)

Book Description

Release date: November 11, 2003

Tragic Indifference is the gut-wrenching account of the biggest product liability case in history: the Ford-Firestone fiasco, where delaminating Firestone tires caused Ford Explorers to lose control and crash at highway speeds. The result was a massive recall, consumer panic, and congressional hearings. It all culminated in a lawsuit that would become a watershed for all future auto safety lawsuits.

In February 2000, reports began to surface of an alarming number of rollover cases involving Ford Explorers traveling on Firestone's Wilderness AT tire. As the stories drove a national frenzy of news coverage, no one seemed to know what was causing the devastation. Until one lawyer, who had been campaigning for years to get Ford to acknowledge the dangerous flaws in the design of the Explorer -- an engineering flaw greatly exacerbated by the use of Firestone's tires -- stepped forward to demand that Ford executives take responsibility for the lethal design of their trucks.

More than a courtroom drama, Tragic Indifference reveals the web of individual stories beneath the national headlines. Weaving together harrowing depictions of the accidents and their consequences with the stories of the men and women who labor to police the auto industry and its reckless cost-cutting, Tragic Indifference will transform the way you view the government, the courts, and the media. Above all, this book shows the price the public pays in wrecked and mangled lives when companies focus more on shaving costs than making quality products.

At the center of the story is Tab Turner, a charismatic trial attorney from Arkansas, who has made a career out of forcing Ford and other automakers to own up to their unsafe practices and to admit that they knowingly trade human lives for profits. Given the almost complete lack of government regulation over the auto industry, Turner has become, in essence, the court of last resort for victims of callous auto companies.

Tragic Indifference also recounts the struggles of Turner's client Donna Bailey, a single mother and outdoor enthusiast who led troubled teens on backpacking trips, as she fought back from the brink of death to confront those ultimately responsible for her accident. Her case became a benchmark for all others that followed.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In a stinging invective, journalist Penenberg outlines the ethical failures and calculated improprieties of two principal automotive-industry companies, along with the struggle of attorney Tab Turner to hold them accountable. Already an established consumer-rights lawyer, Turner began to focus on Ford Explorers equipped with Firestone Wilderness tires in the mid to late 1990s, when the number of cases in which the tread separated from a tire and resulted in an often fatal rollover accident began to become significant. Penenberg uses Turner's involvement in the case of Donna Bailey, who was paralyzed in such an accident in Texas in 2000, as the framework for his book. As Turner investigates further, Penenberg paints a picture of an automaker trying to dominate the lucrative SUV market despite known stability flaws with its signature model in the class, and of a tire manufacturer willing to sacrifice the integrity of its products in order to fulfill the wishes of its biggest client. The writing and structure of the book are somewhat formulaic, as the chief concern is the reportage. Penenberg is also so strident in his tone and puts the companies in such a harsh light that it almost makes one wonder if this is an accurate portrayal, but he offers extensive endnotes from an array of sources to back up his claims. It's a comprehensive and disturbing book, and perhaps its ultimate validation is that Ford and Firestone, which had done business for nearly 100 years, broke ties, and Ford agreed not only to settle Bailey's case for tens of millions of dollars but also to have executives videotaped at her hospital bedside as they offered condolences.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Adam L. Penenberg is a well-known investigative journalist who has written for the New York Times, Forbes, Wired, Inside, Playboy, and Mother Jones. He garnered national attention in 1998 for exposing a fabricated New Republic story on hacker crime by Stephen Glass, which is portrayed in the movie Shattered Glass. His previous book was Spooked: Espionage in Corporate America.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Collins Business (November 11, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060090588
• ISBN-13: 978-0060090586
• Product Dimensions: 1 x 6 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,770,094 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Adam L. Penenberg is a journalism professor at New York University who has written for Fast Company, Forbes, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Wired, Slate, Playboy, and the Economist. A former senior editor at Forbes and a reporter for Forbes.com, Penenberg garnered national attention in 1998 for unmasking serial fabricator Stephen Glass of the New Republic. Penenberg's story was a watershed for online investigative journalism and portrayed in the film Shattered Glass (Steve Zahn plays Penenberg).

Penenberg has published several books that have been optioned for film and serialized in the New York Times Magazine, Wired UK, and the Financial Times, and won a Deadline Club Award for feature reporting for his Fast Company story "Revenge of the Nerds," which looked at the future of movie-making. He has appeared on NBC's The Today Show as well as on CNN and all the major news networks, and has been quoted about media and technology in the Washington Post, the Christian Science Monitor, USA Today, Wired News, Ad Age, Marketwatch, Politico, and many others.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Tragically, a True American Horror Story November 20, 2003

By Lewis Z. Koch

Format:Hardcover

After reading the first 13 pages, your blood starts to boil. By the time one finishes this scathing 342 page book the reader wants to throw the book against the wall, or better, against the heads of company executives who deliberately make terrible, killing and maiming products.

"Tragic Indifference" documents, step by step, tragic, tear-inducing tale of indifference by Ford Motor Company and Firestone tires. Penenberg's book has been purchased for a film, not surprisingly because in a sense, it is a remake of the classic 1991 film "Class Action" which goes over the same grounds -- a car manufacturer indifferent to the death and disability of its riders.The more things changes...Only this is not fiction; every word is true.

Here the case is one car company, Ford and one tire company, Firestone, who make an ugly pair as they conspire (for purely economic reasons) to build an unsafe car and tires to match. They refuse to redress their errors because it is cheaper to pay the hidden-to-the-public legal settlements filed by those who have been killed or maimed, or permanently crippled. Out of sight, out of mind. Except it becomes open to the public when a reporter as tenacious as Penenberg, matches his writing talents with his investigative skills.

By the time you finish Penenberg's book, you will never purchase a Ford automobile or allow a Firestone tire on your car. You will reconsider the car you drive, and the tires you've purchased no matter the make or model.

There is more to this story -- the story of deliberate government indifference with a mindset bent on protecting corporate malfeasance. There are agencies created to protect the consumer, agencies who fail in every instance, to do just that. Penenberg points out how there is no limit to what corporate campaign funds can purchase. And the legislators whose only job is to protect their killing corporate fundraisers.

There are the personal injury attorneys. Here, we have a tiny body of lawyers who -- let's use the the worst kind of epithet -- ambulance chasers -- a term which by any measure of humanity should be a badge of honor. Who protects the poor, the unsophisticated from the ravages of a company who deliberately builds unsafe products? Are the poor less worthy, less entitled to justice? Is their pain and disbility less worthy because they are poor? The tort reform legislation always wandering around legislative halls is merely a product of companies who do not want to be detered or held liable for their killing and maiming products. The trial lawyers Penenberg writes about are true American heros, and it is wonderful that we can know them through this book.

And there will be the tears the reader will shed when reading that part of the settlement demanded by one woman crippled by the deliberately unsafe Ford car insists as part of her settlement that Ford attorneys come to her hospital bedside and apologize in person.The attorneys, of course, will be able to walk out after they finished. The woman will occupy a hospital bed for the rest of her unnaturally, shortened life. Penenberg forces the reader to consider -- how many millions of dollars make an equitable willing exchange for a life lost or being permantently crippled? How much for your arm? How much to live in a bed, unable to move your arms or legs? How much for your life?

Those are the questions "Tragic Indifference" forces you to contemplate.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Add this book to your american history "must read" list! November 28, 2003

By "trstone"

Format:Hardcover

I truly believe this book should be added to the social history books that have helped make the average person more aware of some of the horrific injustices that occur, (especially when the government is in charge of "overseeing" a specific industry). This book immediately brought to mind Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle", Ralph Nadar's "Unsafe at Any Speed" and Eric Schlosser's "Fast Food Nation" - It makes you realize that if it wasn't for those authors and others - so much of what is happening in this country would go unnoticed.

Since I don't want to be redundent, I won't repeat what all the other positive reviews have been saying, you can read those for yourself (and yes- it is a page turner!), but I wanted to mention that one of the more striking things about this horrendous story of corporate greed is that you realize that as an individual you can make a difference. In addition to the really great lawyers who are out there working on the publics' behalf (if it wasn't for stories like this - you may not even realize that there are some great lawyers out there - thank you Tab Turner), you have to remember it takes a lot of courage to become a company whistleblower, putting yourself, family, friends let alone your future livelyhood on the line - in order to stand up for something you believe in. It's unfortunate that more of these people who stand up for what they believe in, are not supported and held in high esteem as heroes as I believe they should be (thank you Alan Hogan, Joan Claybrook, Sean Kane and others that were part of this story).

America's love affair with "bigger is better" and the constant need to "upsize" so many things in our life is put to shame by a story like this. I can't believe that anyone who reads this book would continue to drive their SUV's for "safety reasons," although I'm sure plenty of people will.
I highly recommend this book as the "must read" story of this year. Even if you are not a car enthusiast (and I'm not) I believe if you have the chance to read a few pages, you will be hooked to the very end. Thank you Adam Pennenberg (and his publishing team) for bringing this story back into the public's consciousness, it's one that anyone whose life comes in contact with the auto industry (if you drive a car, or even if you are just a passenger in a vehicle) should read!

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Page Turner that Rivals Erin Brokovich and the The Insider November 11, 2003

By Susan L

Format:Hardcover

This is the kind of book that reels you in from page 1 and doesn't let you go until the very end. I finished it one weekend! It's so utterly gripping as it takes the reader on an amazing ride from the highway, to the hospital, the boardroom and the courtroom through the vantage point of one of America?s top lawyers, Tab Turner. When government regulators fail to step in and enforce safety regulations on the Ford Bronco II and the ever-popular Ford Explorer, Turner steps in fight the good fight. Tab is portrayed as a brilliant and wise cracking attorney from Arkansas who becomes a one man tour-de-force in taking the auto industry to task. Early on in the book, Penenberg introduces us to Donna Bailey, the single mother and mountain climber, who one day sets out on a hiking trip with her best friend and returns home, months later as a quadriplegic, when her Explorer rolls over, nearly crushing her to death.

As the story builds, you feel that for the first time you truly understand how the decisions that large corporations make, impact our everyday lives. The author, obviously an investigative journalist, knows how to weave together the elements of the story including insider memos from Ford and Firestone, whistleblower testimony and even settlement information that would seem to be confidential. You somehow feel that Penenberg is letting you into this secret world, where corporate greed and cover-ups are everyday business, the side of American business that we rarely get to see. Penenberg forces us to open our eyes and literally feel how these decisions, have killed hundreds of American every year, while companies make no attempt to change the way they do business. It was impossible to put this book down.

More than anything else, the book reminds you that there are still more than 3 million of these unsafe Ford Explorers on the road today. Now when I?m on the highway, I can?t help but notice just how many of these cars are driving next to me, and somehow I always manage to change lanes. Don?t miss this gripping book, it may actually save your life.