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Defective Fatal Rollover Crash Lawsuits,
Defective Automobile Roof Lawsuits, Deadly Defective SUV
Rollover Crash
Lawsuits, Defective SUV Rollover Crash Lawsuits, and
Fatal Roof Design Rollover Lawsuits
by Texas Fatal Rollover Crash
Lawyer Jason S. Coomer
Many
different types of
automobile defects can cause a fatal crash to occur or a
minor accident to become a catastrophic injury or deadly
accident including defective SUV design, defective SUV
rollover design, defective SUV roof safety design, defective
SUV tires, defective steering column design, and defective
SUV child restrain
design. In the aftermath of a serious automobile crash
or deadly SUV rollover collision, it is extremely important
to investigate how the rollover crash occurred and if a
vehicle defect was the cause of the rollover crash or caused
a minor accident to become a catastrophic injury or deadly
crash.
If you have
lost a loved one in a fatal rollover crash or have
been seriously injured by a defective SUV or other automobile
with defective
brakes, defective roof design, defective accelerator,
defective rollover design, defective tires, or other
defective crashworthiness features, feel free to
submit an
inquiry or
send an e-mail to Texas
Deadly Rollover Crash lawyer Jason Coomer.
Automobile Accident Crashworthiness Safety Belt
Lawsuits, Fatal Crash Rollover
Lawsuits, Fatal SUV Rollover Crash Crashworthiness Unsafe Roof
Collapse Lawsuits and Fatal Automobile Rollover Crash
Crashworthiness Lawsuits (Automobile
Defective Crashworthiness Product Liability Lawsuits)
Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards
set minimum performance requirements for those vehicle parts
that protect drivers and passengers from death or serious
injury in the event of a crash (air bags, safety belts,
child restraints, energy absorbing steering columns,
motorcycle helmets). These vehicle performance
requirements, defective automobile crashworthiness lawsuits,
manufacturer safety policies, and the investigation efforts
of the
The National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration are important to identify unsafe
vehicles with defective airbags, defective seat belts,
defective child restraints, defective roof design, defective
designs that cause vehicle fires, and defective designs that
cause vehicle rollovers.
Fatal Rollover Crash Defective Design Lawsuits,
Catastrophic Injury Defective Design Rollover Lawsuits,
Fatal Roof Collapse Defective Design Lawsuits, Catastrophic
Injury Defective Roof Design Lawsuits, and Automobile
Accident Collapsed Roof Lawsuits (Product Liability
Defective Design Roof Collapse Lawsuits)
Manufacturers have known for decades that
vehicles roll over in reasonably foreseeable accidents. With
the rise in popularity of SUVs and pick-up trucks, the
number of people who are susceptible to vehicles rolling
over has increased significantly over the last 20 years.
However, in light of the fact that more people are affected
by rollovers, most vehicle manufacturers have not increased
the strength of the roofs in their SUVs and pick-ups.
Roof crush, or “loss of occupant survival
space,” creates many problems for occupants in the vehicle.
First, it rapidly reduces the space in the vehicle for the
occupant. This will increase the risk that the occupant will
receive a spinal cord compression injury. Second, roof
deformation does not happen straight down but rather down
and in toward the occupant. This significantly increases the
likelihood that a properly belted occupant will be partially
ejected out of the vehicle during the roll sequence.
Typically the force of the roll coupled with the glass
shattering out of the window, the roof crushing down and
inward and the seatbelt not properly securing the occupant
to the seat will result in the occupant having his or her
head and/or arm and shoulder out of the vehicle during the
roll. As will be discussed below, there are other ways to
keep an occupant in the vehicle during a roll but a roof
that stays in place during a roll reduces the risk of a
person being partially ejected or receiving a compression
injury even without the other safety measures.
The most common injuries associated with
roof crush are spinal cord compression injuries and death.
Many automobile manufacturers have taken the position,
especially in spinal cord compression injury cases, that the
injury was caused by the occupant “diving” into the roof.
The term “diving” comes from the analogy of swimming pool
diving injuries to compression injuries sustained in
rollovers. With this defense, the automobile manufacturers
maintain the injury occurs before the roof crushes in by the
head moving toward the roof until it can go no further and
the weight of the occupant’s body moving toward the head
until there is such loading on the neck that a spinal injury
occurs. Vehicle manufactures allege through testing and
expert testimony that when a vehicle is inverted, the forces
of gravity and the roll sequence will lead to an occupants
head contacting the roof without any roof crush. They allege
that there is no alternative roof design that can stop this
from happening.
Partial ejections are also common in
rollover accidents because the roof crushes down and in
toward the occupant. When the roof crushes down and in, the
force of the roll causes the occupant’s head to get outside
the plane of the vehicle. In a partial ejection, it is
common for an occupant to hit his or her head against the
ground or pavement or get it caught between the car and
ground during the roll. Vehicle manufacturers often argue
that no matter the strength of the roof, a belted occupant
can get their head out of the car during a roll. But if you
keep the roof from deforming more than 3 inches during a
rollover, restrained and contained occupants cannot get
their heads out of the plane of the vehicle and sustain a
catastrophic injury. The most important series of tests that
address the causal relationship between occupant injuries
and roof deformation are Malibu I and Malibu II. These were
dolly rollover tests performed with Chevrolet Malibus (some
with production roofs and others with reinforced roofs that
did not deform during the rollovers). The vehicles were
equipped with Hybrid III test dummies (in Malibu I the
dummies were unrestrained and in Malibu II the dummies were
properly belted). Vehicle manufacturers use the Malibu tests
to argue the roof crush does not actually cause the injury.
The test data demonstrates, however, that
there is a causative relationship between the strength of
the roof and significant neck loading. Analysis of the
Malibu testing and other testing that has been performed by
the automotive industry and others is beyond the scope of
this paper, but it is important for anybody handling a roof
crush case to be well-versed in all of this testing. When
analyzing a roof crush case, it is important to analyze the
extent of the roof deformation. This will require
measurements that can be done by a trained attorney or
investigator. Further, as discussed above, the accident
reconstruction will provide much information that will allow
an analysis of a roof crush case. Trip speed, roll velocity,
number of rolls, drop height and the type of roll (barrel,
end over end or football) are all needed to analyze whether
or not a safer alternative design existed that would have
kept the occupant compartment space preserved during the
roll.
United States and Texas
Fatal Rollover Crash
Lawyers for Deadly Rollover Fatal Crash Lawsuits
As a Texas Fatal Rollover Crash, Jason Coomer, works on Texas Fatal Rollover Lawsuits
involving serious injuries and fatal automobile collisions all over
the State of Texas and throughout the United States. In working on Texas
Fatal Rollover Crash
Law Suits, Jason Coomer commonly works with other Texas
Fatal Crash Rollover Lawyers throughout Texas and the United States including Houston Fatal
Roll Over Crash Lawyers, Dallas Fatal Defective Roof Collapse
Rollover Lawyers, El Paso Defective SUV Fatal
Rollover Crash Lawyers, and San Antonio Fatal Crash Rollover Accident Lawyers.
In working with other
Defective Crashworthiness Fatal Crash Rollover Lawyers, he is able to more
efficiently investigate and litigate catastrophic injury and
fatal automobile crash and deadly car wreck lawsuits that
are caused by defective automobile design or parts.
Texas Fatal Crash Rollover lawyer, Jason S. Coomer, helps
individuals that have been seriously injured and the
families of people that have been killed as a result of
defective air bags, defective rollover design, defective
roof design, defective safety restraint design, defective
steering column design, or other a defective crashworthiness automobile
design or part.
If you have a question about a fatal rollover crash lawsuit or
a SUV rollover crash roof collapse lawsuit,
contact Austin Texas
Fatal Rollover Crash lawyer Jason Coomer.
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