Rollover Deaths Are Preventable
Attorney
(866) 735-1102 Ext 435
Look at the number of innocent people killed each year on our highways…Over 30,000…of that number a staggering one-third are killed in light vehicle rollover accidents. Why is this happening?
We know manufactures are responsible for designing vehicles that provide occupant safety in rollover accidents. We know manufactures have the capability, yet they continue to put their head in the sand when it comes to rollover protection.
Rollovers are survivable if vehicles provide basic safety features. If a vehicle is struck from the front or side, the vehicle must absorb a tremendous amount of force within microseconds. A rollover is different. In a rollover energy is dissipated over longer time and distance with much lower forces on the occupants.
The defects that cause the staggering number of deaths in rollover accidents include; lack of adequate roof and pillar strength, seat belts that do not safely hold occupants in position, seat belts that unlatch, door locks and latches that fail and lack of side curtain air bags.
The legal basis for these claims against manufacturers is known as the crashworthiness doctrine. The doctrine provides that if a manufacturer’s negligence in design causes an unreasonable risk, the manufacturer is liable for injuries caused.
Manufactures have known since the early 1950’s about the importance of passenger protection in rollover accidents. Beginning in the 1950s General Motors, Chrysler, and Ford conducted rollover tests to identify how a vehicle’s structure would perform in rollover accidents.
In 1973 the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, under pressure from manufacturers adopted a pitifully weak standard. The standard FMVSS216 merely required that a vehicle’s roof resist a static force of 1.5 times the empty weight of the vehicle or 5,000 lbs whichever is less. The standard requires testing of only one front pillar, allowing force to be applied to the roof gradually over the pillar. This is a far cry from the actual forces applied in a rollover accident.
Currently, NHTSA is considering a revised rule that would extend the standard to vehicles weighing 10,000 lbs or less and increase the applied force to 2.5 times the vehicles unloaded weight and eliminate the current limit on the amount of roof crush. The proposed rule would require enough headroom to accommodate passengers in the 50th percentile of American men.
This is a step in the right direction, but the new rule has a sneaky little provision that takes away our rights. We all need to contact our senators and congressmen and urge them to adopt this new rule and save thousands of lives WITHOUT THAT SNEAKY LITTLE CLAUSE PUT IN BY THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION THAT THE RULE WOULD PREEMPT ALL CONFLICTING STATE COMMON LAW REQUIREMENTS, INCLUDING RULES OF TORT LAW. That little clause means that a jury no longer has the ability to determine what is unreasonable, the federal government has done that for us…no, the federal government did it for the big auto companies…