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CASES & INVESTIGATIONS |
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GENERAL INFORMATION |
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Danger of Seat
Belt Failures in Rollover Accidents |
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| In the 1960’s, the
federal government established the first standards
for safety belts in motor vehicles. At the time,
rollover crashes were a small subset of crashes.
Today, rollover fatalities involving vehicles account
for 10,600 deaths, fully a third of all occupant
deaths. |
| The number of rollover
accidents has increased as more light trucks,
SUVs and pickup trucks are sold. Light trucks,
which are more prone to roll over than cars
because of their higher centers of gravity,
now account for more than half of all new vehicles
sold. |
| To counter evidence
and criticism of the design of SUVs and pickup
truck as posing too great a risk of a rolling
over, automakers regularly claim that the drivers
and passengers killed in rollovers died because
they are not wearing seat belts, even though
seat belt use is at historic high levels. |
| An analysis of government
safety data and accident reports by the consumer
protection group Public Citizen shows that
this is not true. Almost 2,000 of the over
10,000 persons that died in rollover accidents
were wearing their seat belts. About 1,000
of these persons were partially or fully ejected
from the vehicle. |
| The primary benefit
of a seat belt in rollovers is to prevent ejection.
Yet, in almost 20% of rollover accidents seat
belts fail to perform as expected. In SUV accidents
where the SUV rolled over and the roof crushed,
almost half of all deaths and injuries occurred
to persons wearing seat belts. |
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| Lieff
Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein,
LLP represents persons
injured in vehicle accidents. Click
here to submit your
case. |
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| Lieff Cabraser has participated
in over thirty-five $100 million-plus settlements & verdicts
since 1992. To read a summary, click
here. |
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| In its analysis, Public
Citizen observed that there has never been a federal
requirement that automakers test their seat belts
to find out how they perform in rollovers. As stated
by Joan Claybrook, who headed the National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration from 1977 to 1981, "Seat
belts simply are not doing enough to protect vehicle
occupants in rollover crashes. Ejection while wearing
a seat belt should happen rarely, if at all." |
| Claybrook added, |
"The
fact is that rollovers not only are largely
preventable through design changes, they
also should be highly survivable, because
the forces involved are generally much lower
than in other types of collisions. Seat structures
are not designed to keep occupants in place
during a rollover, and vehicle roofs are
so weak that they collapse, crushing the
heads and spines of occupants. As a result
of collapsing roofs, windshields and side
windows break, providing ejection portals
and further weakening the roof and side structures.
And finally, outdated, inadequate belt systems
fail." |
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| Persons who have been
injured in SUV rollover accidents or other vehicle
crashes, or family members of loved ones who have
died, are welcome to contact
a Lieff Cabraser lawyer by clicking
here. There is no cost or obligation
for our review of your claim. |
| Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein,
LLP, is a national law firm of over 50 lawyers with offices in San Francisco,
New York and Nashville. Our attorneys are recognized
for the successful prosecution of lawsuits involving deaths, personal injuries
and property damage due to defective products, including in the field of vehicle
safety. |
| In 2007, in the case
of Mraz
v. DaimlerChrysler, Lieff Cabraser
attorneys, with local co-counsel, obtained
the fourth largest verdict in California for
the year. At trial, plaintiffs showed that
a defective
transmission was responsible for making
a Dodge Dakota pickup shift into reverse and
run over Richard Mraz. |
| Currently, we are
prosecuting personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits involving cars, vans,
pickup trucks, SUVs, the Yamaha Rhino and other
vehicles. To learn more about the firm, click
here. |
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| Trademark Notice:
Vehicle Injuries.com is an electronic newsletter from Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein,
LLP, a national personal injury attorney | lawyer law firm. |
| Lieff Cabraser is not
affiliated in any way with any trademark owner. The use of any trademarks on
this site is for product identification and information purposes only. |
| About Lieff Cabraser:
Drivers and passengers injured in auto crashes and pickup truck and SUV rollover
accidents, or families of loved ones who died, may be eligible to file lawsuits
against other drivers at fault or against the manufacturer of their vehicle if
the accident was due to a safety defect. Safety defects can include a high risk
of rolling
over, tire tread
separation, seat
belt failures and other defects. Learn
more... |
| We have offices in San
Francisco, New York and Nashville.
Our car crash accident lawyers and auto accident attorneys have represented
clients in personal injury, auto accident, SUV rollover and vehicle safety defect
lawsuits across America, including persons living in Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas,
Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii,
Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland,
Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota,
Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma,
Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia,
Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, West Virginia and Wyoming. |
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| Copyright © 2008 Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein,
LLP |
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