ford pinto memo key points:
1. With expected unit sales of 11 million Pintos, and a total cost per unit to modify the fuel tank of $11, a recall would have cost Ford $121 million.
2. But, using mathematical formulations of a probable 2,100 accidents that might result in 180 burn deaths, 180 seriously burned victims, and 2,100 burned-out vehicles, the "unit cost" per accident, assuming an out-of-court settlement, came to a probable $200,000 per death, $67,000 per serious injury, and $700 per burned-out vehicle, leaving a grand total of $49.53 million.
3. Allowing the accidents to occur represented a net savings of nearly $70 million.
4. Therefore, a human life was mathematically proven to be worth less than an $11 part.
http://www.autosafety.org/uploads/ph...F_FordMemo.pdf