Personal InjuryVehicle Roofs Strengthened After Years of Injury
Many auto defects have been corrected, albeit slowly, through decades of injuries and lawsuits. Luckily, litigation has helped bring some governmental regulations up to speed. Consequently, car manufacturers have been forced to produce higher quality vehicles in compliance with the safety needs of the public.
One example of an auto design defect that has been improved through this process is the vehicle roof. Since the 1960s, car manufacturers have known that the common roof strength of vehicles was not adequate to protect passengers in rollover accidents. After a case where a passenger in a Buick was crushed under the roof of their car, the court stated that "it is the obligation of automobile manufacturers to provide more than a movable platform capable of transporting passengers from one point to another." Simply put, the vehicle needs to protect the passengers.
An early version of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration -- called the Nation Highway Safety Bureau -- developed safety standards with respect to roof strength in 1971. The standards required vehicles to withstand a certain amount of pressure to the roof in the case of a rollover accident.
The auto industry lobbied against these regulations. They knew their roof designs were not adequate and they did not want to pay to fix them, or to adjust to the future costs of adopting a stronger design. Still, General Motors saw five of their six car models fail the internal crash tests. Over thirty years later, an estimated 7,000 people have died per year from roof crush in rollover accidents.
In September of 1997, a 29 year-old single mother was crushed in her Blazer during a rollover accident. The roof collapsed by eight inches, crushed her spine, and left her paralyzed from the neck down. General Motors refused to accept responsibility for the accident, and the woman was forced to support herself and her young son with only $800 a month from Social Security and food stamps. Meanwhile, her medical bills reached into the millions.
By 2006 -- nine years after her accident -- she was rewarded $18.6 million, one of the largest court judgments for a case involving roof strength and severe injuries during a rollover accident.
Finally, the NHTSA has approved a much stronger regulation for roof strength, which will be enforced by 2012.
Read more about the role of litigation in auto safety.
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