In a crash, the higher lift, stiff framework and steel-panel construction of SUVs can overpower the crash protections designed into other vehicles, making them hazardous for their own occupants and other motorists in two-vehicle crashes. But the vehicles' high profile and narrow track width makes SUVs very prone to rollovers and roof crushes, another factor in an already dangerous circumstance. Because the typical SUV also has a weak roof and poor crash protection, this combination of design hazards place SUV occupants at a high risk of death or paralysis. Despite the countless protests and expressions of concern from safety advocates and members of Congress over the past two decades, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has failed to establish a standard for rollover and roof crush prevention, instead implementing a weak consumer information program. Although rollover and roof crush crashes are not among the top types of crashes, accounting for only four percent of all crashes, the death toll from these rollover and roof crush crashes account for a third of all highway motor vehicle fatalities, and is sixty percent of the deaths in SUVs.
Roof pillars are the vertical portions of your automobile in between the windshield and windows that connect the lower body to the roof. These pillars, to the average person, look very sturdy, but in fact, they are constructed from sheet metal, either folded or molded with a hollow center. Import automobiles, shown through testing, have reinforced pillar designs, utilizing baffle plates and rigid foam, each of which can triple their strength to withstand impact forces of a rollover and roof crush. Safer designs, not limited to import vehicles, are also made up of closed sections (like an “O” rather than a “C”) and use solid tubular steel for windshield headers, roof side rails, and lateral cross-members, connected with reinforcing gussets, triangular devices that reinforce the joints between two separate frame parts.
Rollover and roof crush crashes are not always fatal, but are often serious. The impact forces in a rollover are spread out over a period of a few of seconds and because of this are less in severity than other types of collisions and accidents, such as frontal and side impact accidents. These types of facts suggests that rollover and roof crush accidents are dangerous because of design flaws and lack of safety consciousness during the design process. Vehicle roofs are so flimsy that when the full weight of the car is pressed into the roof structure, the vehicle's weight forces a roof crush, collapsing the roof into occupants’ heads and spines, inflicting very serious and sometimes fatal injuries.
If you or a loved one were seriously injured in a rollover accident, the vehicle involved should be preserved for a thorough inspection and collection of evidence, which should determine the point of impact. A bio-medical or bio-mechanical expert should investigate the physical injuries and medical records.
Below is a list of common questions involving roll-over collisions:
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