\u00a0A Mississippi jury awarded the family of New York Mets prospect Brian Cole, who was killed\u00a0in an accident while driving\u00a0an Explorer,\u00a0$131 million from Ford Motor Co.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n
http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/idUSTRE68203520100903<\/a><\/p>\r\n This isn’t the first settlement of its kind that Ford had had to pay.\u00a0It\u00a0reportedly has shelled out\u00a0a large sum of money for\u00a0settlements in wrongful death cases involving its Explorer, which has a long history of fatal accidents.<\/p>\r\n \u00a0The attorney for Cole’s family, Tab Turner, told Reuters said that after the jury rendered its verdict, the family reached a settlement with Ford. The terms of that settlement were’s disclosed, but the case in general was worth more than some other rollover lawsuits\u00a0because of Cole’s profession as a ball player.<\/p>\r\n Ford had argued that Cole had been speeding, driving 80 mph, when he went off the road in a 2001 rollover accident and\u00a0was killed. Cole, 22,\u00a0wasn’t wearing a seat belt. He died in the Florida Panhandle while on his way from home to Mississippi.<\/p>\r\n The auto maker also contended that\u00a0it would have won the case if the jury hadn’t excluded some evidence.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n “This was a tragic accident and our sympathy goes out to the Cole family, for their loss,\u00a0but it was unfair of them to blame Ford,” a spokeswoman for the auto maker said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n