Roof Crush In Car Accidents: Maintaining Survival Space to Prevent Brain Injury.
Brain Injuries sustained in car accidents can often be the result of “roof crush” caused by rollover of the motor vehicle. We have written several articles detailing the part of tire failure in roll-overs.
Rollovers may also be associated with a type of motor vehicle with SUVs being among one of the most suspect class. It should be noted that safety varies greatly among makes and models.
The issue in rollovers is the protection of the occupants through maintaining “survival space”. “Survival space” is the space around an occupant that remains free of intrusion in a motor vehicle accident – the area in which an occupant is able to “survive” the crash. A roof is part of the structural support of a vehicle and is a critical component in protecting the occupant. A roof may crush from the failure of the side rails, headers or support pillars. Substantial crush decreases the survival space resulting in impact to the head. Catastrophic injury can occur, death, paralysis, and brain damage. Most devastating is partial ejection through an opening created during the roof crush.
Roof crush may be unavoidable or it could be a result of an unreasonably dangerous roof design or defect in manufacturing. For example, a $2.75 million dollar verdict against Ford was awarded when a wrongful death occurred during the rollover of decedent’s 1999 Ford Explorer.
The South Chicago accident lawyers of Grazian and Volpe (now Lloyd Miller Law) have handled a multitude of motor vehicle accidents in their plus 25 years of personal injury practice in Chicago and metro area. We advise our clients to research the safety ratings on vehicles before purchase and to follow all maintenance guidelines. It is always better to stay safe, but if you can’t stay safe-stay with Grazian and Volpe (now Lloyd Miller Law).
