Ford Pinto bursts into flame

The Ford Pinto demonstrates the ethical problems faced by businesses. The design of the Pinto created a 'feature' where a percentage of these cars burst into flames on impact. It is often presented as the callous face of business choosing profit over lives. However, the underlying principle to be questioned must address the issue of whether we place any value on human life, not just whether Ford placed too cheap a value on it in this case. For those who don't have to make these decisions it is easy to take a simplistic position. For managers faced with these decisions it is rather more complex.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• pinto
• ford
• explosion
• flames
• crash
• Ford Pinto

[TankAce152]

Made in china

[crashpix]

The video is nice and all, but it's the comments below that made it worth watching. Win!

[GalacticCollision]

@holmd90 I do my best worrying when I'm on fire.

[holmd90]

@GalacticCollision

But then you would be both worrying about it, and on fire.

Call it multitasking.

[gokartbuyer]

@dmenkhau no ,the fuel tank was mounted right above the axle and when a rear end collision happened the axle was pushed up and it punctured the fuel tank and the fuel filler hose was mounted too high in the tank and often the filler tube came out of the tank and gas sloshed all over the exhaust and thats just a speed bump hit a little hard ,imagine an accident.

[dmenkhau]

The battery was in the back, that's the problem

[GalacticCollision]

If I was in a rear end collision that pushed me a good 50 feet in any car, I'd have a lot more to worry about than this.

[Mechknight73]

Ford USA should have been ashamed of themselves! for a $2 part, they could have saved everyone a lot of trouble and recalled what was ultimately a stinker of a car. Mind you, what kind of moron overlooks such a crucial detail? Hit a car in the rear, fuel will leak. HELLO?! RED HOT EXHAUST?!