Lack of Safety Features
In many cases, the lack of safety features in cars and tractor-trailer trucks causes accidents. When if is the cause of death or serious injury, you should seek legal counsel right away.
The following information will help you understand the type of problems that are most likely to cause crashes–not because of driver error but because of faulty design.
Rollover
While rollover accidents only represent about 3% of all auto accidents in the U.S., almost 33% of all highway deaths are from rollover crashes. Of all the passenger vehicles sold in the United States, sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and pickups are, as a class, far and away the most likely to roll over on smooth, flat, dry pavement. This is because the height of an SUV or pickup compared to their wheel base makes them top heavy. This condition is only worsened when SUVs and pickups are fully loaded with people and their luggage or gear. Sadly, while the technology has long existed to reduce the tendency of these vehicles to roll over, most manufacturers do not offer these features or, if they do, frequently make them an option that the customer must pay for, and then don’t tell the customer of their existence.
Roof crush
The basic principle of crash safety is that, like an egg carton surrounding and protecting an egg, a vehicle’s roof and doors must surround and protect the occupants by resisting crash forces without crushing. Yet the federal safety standard applicable to roof strength does not require manufacturers to roll a vehicle to see how well the roof will hold up. As a result, the roofs of many vehicles are poorly designed and prone to crushing down on the occupants inside during a rollover accident.
