Los Angeles, California
May 8, 2023
Nicole Salinas, et al. v. Fernando Galvis Ortiz, et al., case number BC569227 in Los Angeles County Superior Court, the Honorable J. Stephen Czuleger.
After a five-week trial and a half day of deliberation, a civil jury in downtown Los Angles found no defect and no liability against Nissan North America, Inc. and Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., in a requested $126 million products liability design case involving a 2011 Nissan Altima that was struck by a 2014 Ford F150. The co-defendant driver of the Ford F150 was found completely liable for an awarded $21 million verdict for the Plaintiffs.
The lawsuit stems from a two-vehicle crash that occurred at approximately 2:30 a.m. on May 11, 2014. Fernando Ortiz was driving a 2014 Ford F-150 truck southbound on Vermont Avenue in Los Angeles. At the same time, Nicole Salinas was driving a 2011 Nissan Altima westbound on Manchester Avenue. Her sister, Shanel Salinas, was asleep in the passenger seat. At the intersection, Ortiz failed to stop at a red light, and his 6500 lb. pickup (with four passengers) slammed into the passenger side of the Altima, just inches from where Shanel Salinas was sleeping. When the two vehicles collided, the pickup was going 58 mph, and the Altima was going around 30 mph. The Altima’s front and passenger-side airbags all deployed with the side curtains starting to deploy at two milliseconds or ten times faster than the blink of an eye. Nicole Salinas received minor orthopedic injuries. Shanel Salinas, however, received a traumatic brain injury (TBI) due to a diffuse axonal injury (DAI) along with pelvic fractures.