Let's be real careful here and give credit where credit is due.

The Pinto incident was in many ways not a safety issue with
regard to safety testing and the safety engineers at Ford.
The Ford Pinto fiasco was clearly a management issue.

Tests were done to the 20 mph rear impact standard early in
the Pinto development.  Those tests clearly showed that the
Pinto failed.  Those tests were performed by Ford's safety
team according to National Standards and were the results
were reported to management.  It was management who
decided to go ahead with the failed design.

The Pinto incident shows that we as safety engineers can really
a take a horse to water but making it drink is a wholly different
issue.

- Doug McKean



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