The Seattle Times - Local News
By Nancy Bartley

Indrasanti Santosa remembers walking out of Mercer Island BP service station on a June day four years ago. In the next instant, a 1993 white Jeep jetted from the drive-in window across the street, roared across two lanes of traffic, struck her and pushed her through the service-station window. Santosa, who was a jogger and liked to play basketball, suffered head injuries and lost a leg in the crash.

The 76-year-old driver, Ida Gerstel, said the vehicle inexplicably went into open throttle, causing the Jeep to take off on its own. Several weeks ago a King County Superior Court just cleared Gerstel of any liability in the case, but held Daimler-Chrysler, the Jeep's manufacturer, solely responsible and awarded Santosa $5.1 million.

Last week Paul Apple and James Buckley, Santosa's attorneys, filed a judgment against Chrysler, asking the judge to order the $5.1 million payment. Daimler-Chrysler, which insists the accident was the result of the driver error, has 30 days to appeal the verdict and most likely will.

At issue, Apple contends, in a mechanism used in some Jeep Cherokees that can cause unexpected acceleration. During the trial, Santosa's attorneys presented evidence - which they say was compiled from both Chrysler's own statistics and the national statistics - that show there were 261 similar accidents involving 1993 models, 330 involving 1994 model Grand Cherokees, 260 for 1995 models. They estimate more than 1,000 in all. The automaker's attorneys, who were not available to comment, have insisted that all the cases are the result of driving error.

Today, Santosa can't remember the June 4, 1996, accident. What she is aware of, daily, is how her life has changed. She can't jog, doesn't go to the gym, and no longer plays basketball with friends. Everyday, she still thinks about how nice it would be to "just get up and run," she said. Gerstel injured her knee in the accident but fully recovered.

According to the court documentations, a similar incident happened in 1996. A Wilmington, Del, concrete-company owner testified he had just picked up his wife at a mall and slipped his 1996 Grand Cherokee into gear when it took off, racing across a parking lot and striking a woman carrying gallons of paint.

"The problem did not receive a lot of national attention," Apple said. "Yet there were hundreds and hundreds of people out there being hurt."