Marie P. Wilkinson, Warren, OH

On March 23, 2006, after spending the day, as she often did, with her daughter and grandchild looking at prospective pre-schools, beloved grandmother, mother, and friend, 64 year old Marie P. Wilkinson drove a Chrysler-manufactured 1995 Plymouth Neon back to her home. Upon nearing her home, she drove slowly onto its flat entrance and stopped to get her mail. She then placed the vehicle into what she reasonably believed was to be in park and likely believing that the vehicle was in park, exited the vehicle with the engine running to retrieve her mail. After a brief delay, the vehicle suddenly self-shifted into powered reverse, knocking Ms. Wilkinson to the ground. The vehicle then ran over her head, inflicting fatal head and neck injuries.

In the fall of 2007, Farbod Nourian was in his senior year at UCLA, studying history, and planning to apply to law school. But that November he was seriously injured, when the 1996 Jeep Grand Cherokee he had just exited slipped, without warning from park to reverse. Nourian was walking behind the vehicle to get into the passenger's seat, when he noticed the Jeep start to move backwards, he turned and was caught by the door. He grabbed onto the door, but when the vehicle hit a wall, it knocked him to the concrete, rupturing three disks and crushing his vertebrae. He now suffers from chronic pain and gastrointestinal distress. According to his doctors, he faces a lifetime of pain that will only get worse as he ages.