Oakland County Jury Awards $2.07 Million to Father Who Watched Test-Track Crash Injure His Son
After trial: The verdict was returned in August 2026. We found no post-trial motion or appeal as of early October 2026, and we could not confirm whether Continental has paid.
Won by Marko Law Firm.
In August 2026, an Oakland County jury awarded $2.07 million to a father on his bystander emotional-distress claim for watching his son suffer a traumatic brain injury when a prototype Ford Mustang crashed into spectators at a Continental Automotive Systems test track in Auburn Hills in 2023. Continental admitted liability, so the trial decided damages only. Courtroom View Network reported that the company made no settlement offer.
What happened
On July 17, 2023, children on a STEM summer-camp field trip stood behind a rail beside a vehicle test track operated by Continental Automotive Systems Inc. in Auburn Hills, Michigan. A prototype Ford Mustang Dark Horse, driven by a Continental test driver, lost control in a turn and struck the guardrail and the children positioned behind it. Two children were seriously hurt. One of them was the 10-year-old son of Vincent Gibson, who was at the track for the field trip and saw the car hit his son.
The boy suffered a major traumatic brain injury and severe fractures. A jury in an earlier trial from the same crash had already decided what those injuries were worth to him. This second trial concerned something different: Mr. Gibson's own claim as a bystander. Michigan law lets a parent who is present for a sudden, serious injury to a child and who witnesses it recover for the emotional distress that follows. The claim is about what the parent saw and lived through, not about the child's medical losses.
The case was tried in Oakland County Circuit Court in Pontiac before Judge David Cohen. Continental admitted liability before the trial began, so there was no dispute over who caused the crash or whether Mr. Gibson was present for it. That left the jury to set damages for Mr. Gibson's distress alone. Courtroom View Network recorded the proceeding and reported that Continental had made no settlement offer. Jon Marko of Marko Law PLLC tried the case for the plaintiff.
On August 4, 2026, the jury returned a verdict of $2,066,000 for Mr. Gibson. Marko Law described it as the largest bystander verdict in Michigan history, a claim the sources we reviewed do not independently confirm.
It was the second of three damages-only trials from the same crash, each brought by a different member of the injured group. The third, for the other injured child, ended with a verdict in September 2026. We found no post-trial motion or appeal in Mr. Gibson's case as of early October 2026.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.Courtroom View Network, 'Jury Awards $32.7M In Third Consecutive Zero-Offer Test Track Crash Trial', September 2026·Archived copy
- 2.Courtroom View Network, 'Record $896M+ Verdict Awarded In Zero-Offer Test Track Crash Damages Case', July 2026·Archived copy
- 3.Courtroom View Network, '$100M+ Trial Opens Over Bystander Crash At Racing Test Track', August 2026·Archived copy
- 4.Hoodline, 'Auburn Hills Mustang crash that maimed boy, 10, ends in $896.5M verdict', September 2026·Archived copy
- 5.PR.com, 'Jury: Nearly $1 Billion in Verdicts Against Continental Automotive Systems This Summer', September 14, 2026·Archived copy
More proven verdicts from Marko Law Firm
All Marko Law Firm proven verdicts →An Oakland County jury awarded $896.5 million to a young boy who was struck by a prototype test car during a student field trip at a Continental test track, reported as the largest verdict in Michigan history. The award is pre-appeal: post-trial motions are pending, Continental never made a settlement offer, and the amount could still be reduced.
A Detroit federal jury awarded former Michigan inmate Kohchise Jackson $307.6 million after the state's for-profit prison health contractor refused to pay for the $919 surgery that would have reversed his colostomy.
An Oakland County jury found Kroger solely liable and awarded HVAC technician Brian Mierendorf and his wife $76.7 million after a failed R-22 refrigerant line at a Bloomfield Township store burned and destroyed most of both his hands.
On September 11, 2026, an Oakland County jury awarded about $32.7 million to a child who suffered a traumatic brain injury and back and leg injuries when a prototype Ford Mustang crashed into spectators at a Continental Automotive Systems test track in Auburn Hills in 2023. Continental admitted liability, so the trial decided damages only. It was the third trial from the same crash, and the company made no settlement offer in any of them.
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