Family Wants New Ford Explorer Carbon Monoxide Trial

January 23, 2026 — Alleged Ford Explorer Police Interceptor carbon monoxide poisoning was the focus of a lawsuit filed by Texas police officer Jeremy Bellamy in 2022.

Bellamy was working for the Universal City Police Department in March 2021 when a passerby allegedly found him slumped over in the parked 2019 police Explorer.

He was taken to the hospital where he was diagnosed with carbon monoxide poisoning and pneumonia, but the carbon monoxide allegedly came from a defective Ford Explorer Police Interceptor.

However, while the lawsuit said a passerby found him unconscious, the police report said the passerby knocked on the window of the Explorer which caused Bellamy to roll down the window. The report said Bellamy told the passerby that he was fine.

Ford argued at trial that Bellamy had been sleeping due to high blood pressure, sleep apnea and an addiction to pain killers.

The Ford carbon monoxide lawsuit made it to trial where it took the jury just three hours to reach a verdict.

Bellamy wanted the jury to award him up to $136 million but he received nothing when the jury ruled in favor of Ford.

A motion for a new trial was filed, but Mr. Bellamy died less than a week after the jury verdict. The medical examiner concluded Mr. Bellamy died of high blood pressure and heart disease.

The motion for a new trial claimed "the inadvertent submission to the jury of an illustrative exhibit created a rebuttable presumption of prejudice to warrant new trial."

While the lawsuit continued by his estate, the judge denied the motion for a new trial. However, his estate has now appealed the denial for a new trial to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Bellamy's lawsuit was filed at a time when lawsuits were flying everywhere from consumers and police officers, with all the lawsuits alleging Ford's vehicles were causing carbon monoxide poisonings.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration took six years to investigate the allegations and determined the Explorers did not cause elevated carbon monoxide levels in the cabins.

The Bellamy Ford Explorer Police Interceptor carbon monoxide lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas (San Antonio Division): Jeremy Bellamy v. Ford Motor Company.