Feb. 24 (Bloomberg) -- A Tennessee jury ordered DaimlerChrysler AG to pay $53.3 million to a family who claimed defects in a Dodge Caravan, the best selling minivan in the U.S., led to the deaths of two women.

Vickie Mohr, 38, and her mother, Maurine Heathscott, 75, were killed when a Jeep Cherokee on an Arkansas highway hit their minivan in 2002. The family said Mohr was killed because the design of the Caravan left occupants vulnerable in so-called ``offset'' collisions, where only part of the front end is hit.

``The vehicle was designed to collapse underneath the occupant compartment so it could hit the numbers on federal frontal-impact collision tests,'' said Jeremy Knowles, an attorney for the family. ``They took drastic measures to meet that standard and sacrificed safety'' in accidents where only part of the front end is hit head-on, he said.

The Memphis, Tennessee, jury awarded $48.8 million in punitive damages today, after previously ordering DaimlerChrysler to pay $4.55 million in actual damages. Stuttgart, Germany-based DaimlerChrysler, the world's fifth-largest carmaker, said it will appeal.

The Caravan performs as well as other minivans in ``offset'' collisions, said company spokeswoman Elaine Lutz.

``The plaintiffs claim the Dodge Caravan scored low in Insurance Institute for Highway Safety offset testing. The test didn't exist when we designed this body style,'' Lutz said. The accident wasn't an ``offset'' collision, she said. ``It was an override of the Jeep onto the minivan.''

`Inexperienced' Driver

``This tragedy occurred because an inexperienced 17-year-old driver fell asleep at the wheel and crashed into the Mohr's vehicle at a devastatingly high speed,'' said Steve Hantler, assistant general counsel of DaimlerChrysler Corp. ``To impose any punitive damages in these circumstances, let alone $48 million, is an especially egregious miscarriage of justice.''

The Memphis jury awarded $9.5 million in actual damages, finding DaimlerChrysler responsible for $3.45 million of the $7.5 million awarded over the Mohr death and $1.1 million of the $2.5 awarded to the Heathscott estate, said company spokesman Mike Aberlich. The jury also found the driver of the Cherokee, who wasn't sued, partially responsible for the deaths.

The jury awarded punitives only on the death of Vickie Mohr, finding the company's recklessly or intentionally designed a vehicle that could buckle in an offset collision, Knowles said.

The Mohr family said Heathscott was killed when her seat belt failed. DaimlerChrysler said there is no defect in the Caravan's seat belt.

The lawsuit is Mohr v. Daimler Chrysler Corp., No. 03-2433 in Circuit Court for Shelby County, Tennessee.

To contact the reporter on this story: Margaret Cronin Fisk in Southfield, Michigan, at 2947 or mcfisk@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: February 24, 2005 20:37 EST