Question
Responsibility for Product Safety From Wall Street Journal In 1991, an errant trailer broke off of a pickup truck and careened straight into an Oldsmobile
Responsibility for Product Safety From Wall Street Journal In 1991, an errant trailer broke off of a pickup truck and careened straight into an Oldsmobile Cutlass station wagon parked at a Virginia tollbooth. The trailer punctured the cars gas tank, located behind the rear axle and the car caught fire, killing a 13-year old boy. His parents sued General Motors, contending the station wagons design was defective. In a trial, the plaintiffs lawyers introduced a smoking gun document found in GMs own files. Written in 1973 by a GM engineer, the memo calculates that there are a maximum of 500 fatalities per year in accidents with fuel-fed fires where the bodies were burnt. Each fatality had a value of $200,000. Based on those assumptions, the memo calculates that each fatality costs GM $2.40 per automobile in current operation. A plaintiffs witness who works for GM testified that an executive told him that it would cost $4.50 per vehicle to remedy this defect. Question: GM doesn't have to take any course of action from an act-based utilitarian perspective. True False
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