Johnson County, Kansas Wrongful Death & Serious  Personal Injury Law

11/22/11

Some Questions and Answers About SUVs and Rollovers

How serious is the motor vehicle rollover problem in the U.S. today?
Single-vehicle rollovers (for all vehicles, not just SUVs) cause more fatalities than any other kind of motor-vehicle accident -- one-quarter of all deaths yearly. In 1999, 63 percent of all SUV deaths were in rollovers.

Do SUVs have higher rollover rates than other types of vehicles?
Yes. In 2000, SUVs had the highest rollover involvement rate of any vehicle type in fatal crashes -- 36 percent, as compared with 24 percent for pickups, 19 percent for vans and 15 percent for traffic cars. SUVs also had the highest rollover rate for passenger vehicles in injury crashes -- 12 percent, as compared to 7 percent for pickups, 4 percent for vans and 3 percent for passenger cars.

What can be done to improve the stability of SUVs and make them less likely to roll over?
Engineers and safety experts have long agreed that the best way for manufacturers to make SUVs more stable (less likely to roll over) is to lower the center of gravity and widen the wheel track. However, such fundamental changes to an SUV's design are costly, and automakers have often chosen less expensive (and less effective) design modifications.

What can the driver do to reduce rollover risk?
Here are five things NHTSA says a driver can do to reduce the risk of rollover:
(1)  Avoid conditions that could lead to loss of vehicle control. These conditions include driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs; driving when excessively drowsy; and speeding.
(2)  Be careful on rural roads.
(3)  Avoid extreme panic-like steering. NHTSA advises, "If your vehicle should go off the roadway, gradually reduce the vehicle speed and then ease the vehicle back on to the roadway when it is safe to do so."
(4)  Maintain tires properly and replace them when necessary.
(5)  Load vehicles properly. When loaded down with additional weight -- such as passengers, luggage, and equipment -- SUVs become less stable. Compared to most sedans and station wagons, SUVs have a higher center of gravity. Therefore the extra weight, which typically rides above an SUV's center of gravity, makes the vehicle tip more easily.

Are SUVs safer or more dangerous than other vehicles in non-rollover crashes, such as front- and side-impact collisions?
It depends. SUVs offer better protection to their own occupants in multi-vehicle crashes, such as front- and side-impact collisions. However, SUVs are more likely to injure or kill the occupants of other vehicles in a crash. The increasing size of SUVs, and thus their increasing incompatibility with smaller passenger cars, is a growing problem and is likely to result in increasing fatalities.

Is the Ford Explorer more rollover-prone than the dozens of other SUVs?
No. According to federal data and safety ratings, the four-door Explorer's rollover record is pretty typical of midsize SUVs.

Has Ford changed the design of the Explorer?
Yes. The 2002 four-door Explorer model is lower and its wheelbase has been widened by two inches. Former Ford CEO Jacques Nasser tells FRONTLINE that the changes were not made for safety reasons.

Has the Ford-Firestone scandal had an impact on sales of the Ford Explorer?
The Explorer lost market share but remains the best-selling SUV in the world.

Thanks to PBS for the facts in this story!

11/20/11

Lee's Summit child killed in possible hit-and-run car accident on I-470 in Kansas City, Missouri

Driver told police that another driver cut her off, causing her Dodge Durango SUV to rollover, which led the child to be ejected from the sport utility vehicle.

Kansas City, Missouri police have identified a boy who died in an auto accident at I-470 and View High Drive early Thursday morning.  Sadly, it appears that he was not wearing his seat belt when the Dodge Durango rolled over.

Sheri Gibson, the driver and boy’s mother, was also sent to the hospital, but she was treated and released at a local hospital.  Greene’s 14-year-old brother, the only other occupant in the vehicle, was admitted to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries, police said.

The driver told police that a white car, possibly a Crown Victoria, cut her off in traffic and caused the accident. That car has not been located, and police don’t know what part, if any, it played in the crash.  Other witnesses did not see the car and said the driver lost control when trying to slow down quickly due to a traffic slowdown.

Rollover accident statistics in Missouri, Kansas, and elsewhere

Rollover crashes result in 36% more passenger injuries than non-rollover accidents, according to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration. The reason is that rollover crashes result in more head injury and vehicle ejections. In the early 1980’s Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs) became known for a higher incidence of rollovers. A reason for this higher incidence is due in part to the higher profile design of SUVs.

By manufacturer’s adopting new SUV standards, auto industry and federal government data shows that the risk of rollovers could be substantially decreased. A study conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety showed that when auto makers lower SUVs from the ground by just an inch, deaths decrease by almost half.

Common Causes of SUV Rollovers

Combine a high center of gravity with a comparatively narrow wheel-to-wheel ratio and you have an SUV rollover accident waiting to happen. It’s simple physics. Considering the state of the auto industry in today’s economic climate, it’s not likely that auto makers will be making many redesigns. So, here’s a look at other causes for SUV rollovers:

Auto parts malfunction
Tire blowouts
Driver error

Learn more about why sport utility vehicles (SUVs) are more likely to rollover & what you can do to avoid SUV rollover accidents in Missouri, Kansas, and elsewhere

SUVs are notoriously known in the automobile industry for being quick to get into rollover accidents, with a number of vehicle defects leading to rollover accidents.  While this is not a totally unfounded claim, it is also important to note that SUV rollovers also happen because drivers are dangerous in a vehicle that is already prone to rollovers under certain conditions.

But how’s a driver to stay safe?  SUV rollovers happen more commonly than rollovers in other vehicles because, essentially, SUVs are top heavy.  There’s nothing you can really do to change that, short of not buying an SUV, but there are tips you can use to stay safe from SUV rollover no matter what kind of vehicle you drive.  Take these tips to heart, they could very well save your life.

1. You can avoid SUV rollovers by choosing a smart SUV.  Know what you’re buying before you buy it! Check out consumer reports, guides, and rollover ratings.  All things being equal, SUV rollovers are most likely to happen with vehicles that are tall and “skinny,”  The best SUVs to buy when you’re hoping to prevent rollover are the ones that have a father distance between the tires in the back and have a stability control system that helps the driver avoid tipping the vehicle over.

2. The second and most important tip, is to drive your SUV “like an SUV”. If you’re used to driving a car, or even a truck or van, it is tricky to jump into an SUV and take off. You can’t take curves as quickly in an SUV. If you try, rollover is likely.  Before you speed down the highway, take a few days or weeks to learn the feel of your SUV’s steering, brakes, acceleration, and so on.

3. When dealing with an SUV, drive safely.  This is, of course, the best tip to use when driving anything, but it is important to note that most SUV rollovers only happen when the SUV goes off of the main road.

If you’re chatting on your cell phone, doing your makeup in the car, or tending to yelling children in the backseat, it is much more likely that you’ll run off of the road, where you’ll hit a ditch, curb, bump, or obstacle and be thrown head over heels.

4. To go hand-in-hand with the last tip, drive according to the road conditions. SUV rollovers are more likely on rural roads, simply because potholes are more common. If you’re driving on a dirt road or road that rarely gets repaired after the winter, having an SUV can prevent you from sticking in the mud, but at the same time, a pothole can cause you to become off balance and, in effect cause an SUV rollover. Remember that driving for the road conditions also includes the weather. If it’s raining, snowing, or foggy, slow down.

5. Avoid panicking when steering. The common response to losing control is to over-steer in attempts to regain control. Don’t panic and fall into this trap! You’ll only make matters much worse. Instead, grab the wheel firmly and try to keep the vehicle going in a straight path, as you pump the brakes to slow. When you panic and steer sharply, it has the same effects of going around a turn too quickly, and SUV rollovers are common.

6. Keep your car in tip-top shape if you want to avoid SUV rollover. Most importantly, check your tire pressure. If one tire is running low on air, this will not only cause efficiency problems, but will also make your SUV be prone to rollover. Keep in mind also that ESC systems are now available to upgrade your SUV.

This kind of a system monitors your vehicle and your movements to prevent rollover. If you carry things in your SUV, make sure that these things are distributed evenly according to weight. Centrifugal force plays a huge roll in SUV rollovers, so check your loaded items often.

7. Wear your seatbelt. Okay, this isn’t exactly a way to prevent SUV rollovers, but it is a way to prevent death if your SUV should happen to rollover, for whatever reason. More fatalities occur because the driver or passenger was thrown completely or partially out of the SUV as it rolled, and reports show that buckling up can reduce your risk of death when in an SUV rollover by up to 75%.

Be safe, be smart, and if you do happen to become involved with an SUV rollover, which can happen to even the best drivers, contact a lawyer to learn about your legal rights.



Electronic stability control could prevent nearly one-third of all fatal crashes and reduce rollover risk by as much as 80%; effect is found on single- and multiple-vehicle crashes

The new research confirms that ESC reduces the risk of all single-vehicle crashes by more than 40 percent — fatal ones by 56 percent. The researchers estimate that if all vehicles were equipped with ESC, as many as 10,000 fatal crashes could be avoided each year.

"The findings indicate that ESC should be standard on all vehicles," says Susan Ferguson, Institute senior vice president for research. "Very few safety technologies show this kind of large effect in reducing crash deaths."

Availability varies: ESC is standard on 40 percent of 2006 passenger vehicle models and optional on another 15 percent. It's standard on every 2006 Audi, BMW, Infiniti, Mercedes, and Porsche. Another 8 vehicle makes (Cadillac, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lexus, Mini, Toyota, Volkswagen, and Volvo) offer at least optional ESC on all of their models. But ESC, standard or optional, is limited to 25 percent or fewer models from Chevrolet, Dodge, Ford, Hummer, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Saturn, Subaru, and Suzuki.

After studies in 2004 by the Institute and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, some manufacturers announced plans to make ESC standard on all SUVs. The percentage of SUV models with standard ESC has been growing faster than for cars.

As a stand-alone option, ESC costs from about $300 to $800, but it can cost more than $2,000 on some models when packaged with other equipment. A potential problem for increasing consumer awareness is that automakers market ESC by various names including Electronic Stability Program, StabiliTrak, or Active Handling.

"When ESC is optional, this hodgepodge of terms is bound to be confusing," Ferguson points out. "It's good that some of the major manufacturers have pledged to make ESC standard on their SUVs in the next few model years, and it should be standard on cars and pickup trucks too."

How ESC works: Antilock brakes have speed sensors and independent braking capability. ESC adds sensors that continuously monitor how well a vehicle is responding to a driver's steering wheel input. These sensors can detect when a driver is about to lose control because the vehicle is straying from the intended line of travel — a problem that usually occurs in high-speed maneuvers or on slippery roads. In these circumstances, ESC brakes individual wheels automatically to keep the vehicle under control.

When a driver makes a sudden emergency maneuver or, for example, enters a curve too fast, the vehicle may spin out of control. Then ESC's automatic braking is applied and in some cases throttle reduced to help keep the vehicle under control.

ESC is relatively new. Only in the last few years have researchers had sufficient data to analyze its effects on real-world crashes. The new Institute study is based on data from the federal Fatality Analysis Reporting System and police reports of crashes in 10 states during 2001-04. Researchers compared crash rates for cars and SUVs without ESC and the same models in subsequent years when ESC was standard (note: some vehicles with optional ESC were included in the no-ESC group because so few buyers choose this option).

More effects of ESC on SUVs: The data in the Institute's 2004 study weren't extensive enough to allow researchers to compute separate risk reduction estimates for cars and SUVs. However, this was possible in the broader analysis that's just completed. While both cars and SUVs benefit from ESC, the reduction in the risk of single-vehicle crashes was significantly greater for SUVs — 49 percent versus 33 percent for cars. The reduction in fatal single-vehicle crashes wasn't significantly different for SUVs (59 percent) than for cars (53 percent).

Many single-vehicle crashes involve rolling over, and ESC effectiveness in preventing rollovers is even more dramatic. It reduces the risk of fatal single-vehicle rollovers of SUVs by 80 percent, 77 percent for cars.

ESC was found to reduce the risk of all kinds of fatal crashes by 43 percent. This is more than the 34 percent reduction reported in 2004. If all vehicles had ESC, it could prevent as many as 10,000 of the 34,000 fatal passenger vehicle crashes that occur each year.

Insurance claims show effects on collision losses: The results of the Institute's studies showing significant reductions in serious crash risk are reflected in some insurance losses. According to a new analysis by the Highway Loss Data Institute, an affiliate of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, losses under collision coverage are about 15 percent lower for vehicles with ESC than for predecessor models without it. However, ESC doesn't have much effect on property damage liability claims or the frequency of injury claims. These findings track police-reported crashes, which show little effect of ESC on the risk of low-severity multiple-vehicle crashes.