Sport Utility Vehicles, or SUVs, have a history of rolling over and causing severe injury and even death. SUV manufacturers have certain responsibilities to make sure that their vehicle is safe for consumer use. But what are they?
Preventing rollovers
Preventing rollovers from occurring is the most important responsibility of SUV manufacturers according to Rick Morrison, an Alabama attorney, who represents clients injured in SUV rollover and auto safety cases. He explained:
They first thing manufactures need to do is prevent rollovers. One of the key issues with SUV rollovers throughout the last two or three decades has been the lowered center of gravity and doing something to the track width to make the vehicle not as susceptible to rollover.
One of the ways that manufactures are now using to prevent rollovers is what’s called electronic stability control. It’s a computerized system that will actually sense when the vehicle begins to trip over or rollover and will make an adjustment in the vehicle’s handling and steering to prevent the rollover.
Electronic stability control was first available back in1995. The foreign manufactures, and even some of our manufactures, started to make it available on their vehicles in 1998. You’ll see them on higher end vehicles, but unfortunately, you do not see them on all SUVs.
Crash-worthiness
Regardless of how safe SUVs are made, accidents will happen. When accidents do occur, manufacturers must make sure that their vehicles are crash-worthy. Morrison continued, “Our federal motor vehicle safety standards say that manufacturers must do certain things to make vehicles safe. When it comes to a rollover accident, the statistics, and what we’ve learned throughout the years, tell us that if you stay in the vehicle during a rollover, you are far more likely to survive than if you’re ejected. That’s only true if the vehicle maintains its compartment, or its safety cage, so to speak.”
Seatbelts, roofs and side air curtains
In addition to preventing rollovers and making sure that vehicles are crash-worthy, Morrison pointed to other issues that manufacturers must address such as seatbelts, roof structures and side air curtains. He provided the following information on all three:
Seatbelts. Another step that a manufacturer should take to make the SUV safe is to make sure the vehicle has a safe seatbelt system. Believe it or not, General Motors, Ford and other manufacturers, will tell you that our traditional seatbelt systems weren’t designed to prevent a fatal ejection or rollover.
Roof structure. There’s also been a lot of litigation over roof structure or roof crush issues. If the vehicle rolls over and the roof doesn’t crush, you’re more likely to survive. The Volvo XC90 is three or four times stronger than most of your domestic manufacture’s SUVs. There are approximately 500,000 registered Volvo XC90s, Volvo’s version of the SUV, on the road today. There’s not one recorded death in a Volvo rollover and that’s because they make the roof strong.
Side air curtains. Another issue to look at is side air curtains. The air curtains that are deployed on a rollover because of sensors in the vehicle are designed to keep the person inside that vehicle.
Morrison says that if occupants can stay inside the vehicle and the vehicle keeps its shape, they’re going to survive 9 out of 10 times. He added, “So, if the manufactures are taking appropriate steps to make sure that the seatbelt keeps you inside of the vehicle, keep the roof structure strong and provide air curtains to keep you in the vehicle during an accident, chances are that you’re going to be fine – and that’s what the manufactures’ responsibility is when they build an SUV.”
If you’ve been injured in an SUV that has rolled over, contact an attorney whose practice focuses in this area of the law and who understands the differences between the various makes and models of SUVs and their safety records. To contact an experienced attorney near you, please click here.
