Roof Crush rollover accidents

Each year, an estimated 7,000 people are fatally injured in roof crush rollover accidents. That's not to count the 250,000 plus rollover accidents with non-life threatening injuries.

While their European counterparts are busy building vehicles with roofs that withstand more force and weight, the big three automakers in the United States are doing little to improve their roof crush standards and are still following 30 plus year-old guidelines for safety. With cost and fuel efficiency in mind, not safety, American auto manufacturers are doing everything they can to convince those in charge of federal roof crush regulations to stay silent.

SUVs are more likely to rollover due to their height and in many, their narrow wheelbase. When a SUV has a weak roof, the resulting roof crush during the rollover can cause serious or fatal brain or spinal cord injuries.

Vehicles are supposed to be designed so that, in the case of a rollover, the roof structure should remain reasonably intact. When the amount of pressure on the roof causes the windshield to break, the roof of the vehicle is weakened by 33 percent. When the windshield breaks, there is a greater chance of vehicle ejection, resulting in far worse injuries. With cheap and inexpensive material in the roof structure and A-pillars, roof crush will result.

Roof crush injuries are some of the most serious including spinal, neck and head injuries.

The average cost to reinforce one vehicle is approximately $50

On March 18, 2005, a Jacksonville, Fla., jury ruled the Ford Explorer's roof was defective and ordered Ford to pay (the plaintiff) $10.2 million for economic damages, pain and suffering. Company documents presented to the jury revealed the Ford Explorer's roof was weakened when the SUV was redesigned twice in the 1990s -- after engineers recommended strengthening the roof earlier in the decade. Lawyers also used internal company memos that show that Ford's Volvo subsidiary considered roof strength critical to protecting passengers in rollover crashes.

Annual Average Number of Fatal and Serious Occupant Injuries in Towaway Crashes by Crash Type in the 1995-1999 NASS and FARS Crash Databases*

Crash Type	Total Occupants	Fatalities	Fatalities per Total Occupants	Fatal and Serious Injuries	Injuries per Total Occupants
Rollover	418,371	10,149	0.0243	27,057	0.0647
Frontal	2,921,864	12,384	0.0042	62,536	0.0214
Side	1,359,538	8,169	0.0060	33,610	0.0247
Rear	467,559	1,023	0.0022	2,701	0.0058
Other	36,978	432	0.0117	580	0.0157
Totals	5,204,309	32,157	0.0062	126,484	0.0243

 

Nov 20, 2005 | Detroit News "Many of Ford Motor Co.'s best-selling Explorer SUVs from the 1999 to 2001 model years likely do not meet a crucial safety requirement intended to protect passengers in rollover crashes, a safety engineering firm claimed in a petition filed with the federal government."

 

If you or someone related to you has suffered due to a roof crush vehicle rollover accident, contact us using the link below.