Kansas City Auto Defects Lawyer

Rollover Stability and Roof Crush Defects

Rollover accidents have become more common with the widespread use of sport utility vehicles. Unfortunately, many of the vehicles on the road today are unstable, have not been adequately tested and do not provide adequate occupant protection in the event of a rollover.  Rollover cases can be divided into two categories – rollover causing stability defects and rollover crashworthiness defects.

Rollover Stability

Many sport utility and other top heavy vehicles are unstable and susceptible to rollover when a driver takes evasive action on the road.  Vehicles should be designed to “slide out” rather than rollover in such situations.

Lack of Electronic Stability Control

Many manufacturers have begun incorporating a feature called vehicle stability control or “electronic stability control,” also known as ESC, into their vehicles.  Electronic stability control (ESC) is a safety system designed to recognize adverse driving conditions by continuously measuring and evaluating speed, steering wheel angle and vehicle acceleration from various sensors and using those factors to compare a driver’s steering input with vehicle’s actual motion.  If an unstable situation is detected, then ESC automatically intervenes to assist the driver and stabilize the vehicle by applying the brakes to individual wheels as needed and possibly reducing engine torque.  Although electronic stability control was first available in the United States in 1997, auto manufacturers have been slow to incorporate it into their vehicles.  In any case where a vehicle rollover occurred on the road and the rollover was not caused by striking another vehicle or some other object which “tripped” the vehicle, a vehicle stability case should be investigated.

Roof Crush

In addition to stability, vehicles should be designed to provide maximum protection for the occupant in the event of a rollover accident.  The vehicle components which are primarily responsible for protecting occupants in rollovers are seat belts and the vehicle’s roof structure.  Unfortunately, the federal standard, Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 216, has been in place since the early 1970s and is woefully inadequate when it comes to roof strength.  This has allowed the manufacturers to design vehicles to a standard that, in many cases, does little to protect occupants in rollovers.  If the roof crushes or deforms in a rollover accident, the vehicle occupants can suffer severe head and neck injuries that could have been prevented if the roof was stronger.  Any vehicle rollover case which results in severe deformation or crush to the vehicle roof must be investigated for potential defects.