Five million Ford Explorers have been sold since its launch in 1990

The California jury ruled after a six-week trial over Benetta Buell-Wilson's accident in January 2002 as she swerved to avoid something in the road.

Her lawyer argued the motor firm put profits before passenger safety.

Ford described the Explorer, a sports utility vehicle, as an "outstanding" car and said it would appeal.

The court ordered Ford to pay Mrs Buell-Wilson $246m in punitive damages, and $122.6m in compensatory damages.

"We can appreciate the empathy that this jury felt for the plaintiff, but this was an extremely severe crash initiated by the driver, and any SUV would have rolled over under similar circumstances," said Ford spokeswoman Kathleen Vokes.

She said the Michigan-based firm was disappointed the judge did not allow it to present evidence comparing it to other SUVs.

Ford had previously won 11 similar rollover lawsuits after juries were "allowed to hear all of the facts", she claimed.

'Important message'

The trial heard that Mrs Buell-Wilson, a 49-year-old mother of two, lost control of her 1997 Explorer as she swerved to avoid a metal object in the road east of San Diego.

The roof collapsed on her neck as the vehicle rolled four-and-a-half times.

"I'm lucky because I'm short," she said. "If I'd been any taller, I probably would have been a quadriplegic or brain-damaged. Or dead."

Her lawyer, Dennis Schoville, contended Ford had declined to follow its engineers' suggestions to make the Explorer safer because of concerns about cost.

"This is an important message because there are a lot of people out there that are driving these vehicles that don't have, like Mrs Wilson, any clue of what could happen," he said.