Torts: Expensive Lesson

Automobile manufacturers have long seemed convinced that it did not pay for them to pay more attention to safety, because the public did not want to bear the cost. Increasingly, however, the automakers are finding that soft-pedaling safety can cost them quite a bit too. General Motors learned that lesson with its Corvair line, which it dropped last week (see BUSINESS). Recent court decisions in four states against all four major automakers suggest that any car that fails to measure up to reasonable safety standards may prove highly expensive in terms of...

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