Vehicle Rollover Accidents
By Aaron Larson
March, 2005
Contents
Vehicle Rollover Accidents
Due to their design, certain vehicles have a higher center of gravity which makes them more susceptible to rollover accidents. The vehicles most likely to roll over are Sport Utility Vehicles (SUV's), 15-passenger vans (which are often used by schools and churches), and trucks.
Rollover accidents are often single vehicle accidents, often occurring while a vehicle is going around a curve and starts to overbalance. Vehicle rollovers are also not uncommon when a vehicle partially leaves the roadway, and the wheels on one side of the vehicle go into the ditch alongside the roadway.
Serious Injuries
Although vehicle rollovers represent a small percentage of total motor vehicle accidents, they are much more likely to result in serious injury than other types of auto accident. Rollover accidents account for approximately a third of all auto accident deaths, and half of all deaths resulting from single vehicle accidents. Also, due to the nature of a rollover, passengers in a vehicle that rolls are more likely to suffer a head injury when their head strikes the side or roof of a vehicle. Ejectments are not unusual in rollover accidents, particularly where a passenger is not wearing a seatbelt. In vehicle rollover accidents, the highest death rates are for rollovers involving SUV's..
Claims of Defective Vehicle Design & Manufacture
People injured in a vehicle rollover accident may have a claim against the manufacturer of the vehicle, for negligent design (meaning that the manufacturer did not take proper steps during the design process to ensure that its vehicle would be reasonably safe), or negligent manufacture (meaning that there was some form of mistake, negligence, or omission during the manufacture of the vehicle which rendered it unsafe).
Safety does not relate only to factors which make a vehicle more or less likely to roll over, but also to features which could protect the occupants of a vehicle during a rollover accident.