The insurance industry released a major study on Wednesday regarding rollover auto accidents. More than ten thousand people die each year in rollover crashes. The study, which was conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, concluded that many of these deaths could be prevented with stronger roofs on vehicles. Rollovers are violent accidents, and the institute says roofs that crush can too easily lead to needless deaths and injuries. The institute tested the roofs of sports utility vehicles to see how much pressure they could take before collapsing. Although the models looked the same afterward, the force it took to crush each one varied.

The institute tested older mid-size SUVs from Ford, Nissan, Chrysler, General Motors, Mitsubishi and Toyota, and compared the death and injury data from those vehicles. The institute's Adrian Lund revealed the results during an interview with CNN. "The (vehicles with) roofs that take more force to crush them to ten inches, we saw lower injury rates, lower death rates in those vehicles," he said. The test found the 2000 Nissan Exterra to be one of the strongest models. It withstood nearly three times its weight and minimal damage. Compare that to the 2000 Ford Explorer. Its roof caved in with much less pressure.

One of the weakest roofs was found on the 1999-2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee. Its roof crushed under a little more than one and a half times its weight. All the vehicles tested meet current government safety standards. The auto industry calls the study "flawed" and says there's no clear evidence linking roof strength to injury risk. But Scott Duncan believes a crushed roof killed his wife in a rollover crash back in 2001. A jury agreed. "The roof should not collapse down on the occupant when the vehicle rolls over," he said.

Learn more about vehicle rollover dangers and your legal rights.