SUVs and Rollover Injuries

Since their popular emergence in the late 1980s, sports utility vehicles, or SUVs, have become a dominant presence on American roads and highways. Successfully billed as a family vehicle, but with the power, performance and versatility to intrigue the adventurous, the SUV model has been a marketing coup for numerous auto manufacturers in recent decades, adding billions of dollars in sales to their coffers.

Increasingly bigger, faster and more powerful, the SUV is portrayed in countless TV ads as a type of ’super car’, with the ability to climb cliffs, coast across waterways and cruise through snow, rain and desert terrain with ease. While many of these ads are couched in fantasy and humor, there is clearly an underlying message top SUV makers like Toyota, Ford, GMC, Chevrolet and Nissan want to convey to the public. That message is, ‘You can safely take risks with an SUV that you can’t take with other types of vehicles.’

When it comes to their performance on normal roadways, however, the real safety of SUVs has repeatedly come into question. Because of their higher center of gravity and a wider track width, SUVs are far more prone to rollovers, particularly when moving at high rates of speed. SUV rollovers most often occur when a driver attempts to make a corrective action, such as swerving out of the way of an obstacle on the road, or making a sudden turn or stop.

Traffic maneuvers that are routine for other types of vehicles can become dangerous and fatal for passengers in SUVs, resulting in rollovers and severe injuries, such as brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, severe burns, dismemberment and death. And contrary to its depiction as the ultimate family and travel vehicle, several studies have shown that the more people and cargo that are aboard an SUV, the more likely that rollovers can occur in normal road conditions because the SUV’s center of gravity is raised.

SUV manufacturers are aware of those studies and several more that point out flagrant flaws in the way they market, design and manufacture their SUVs, but rarely do such studies compel them to improve the safety of SUVs. Besides rollovers, SUV accidents involving defective tires, tire explosions, unstable design, inadequate roof structure and defective seatbelts have also resulted in tragedy for many drivers. It is only after repeated tragedy on a wide scale, such as the series of Ford Explorer/ Firestone rollovers of the late 1990s, and resulting litigation that SUV manufacturers take the safety of consumers seriously.

The attorneys of Michie Hamlett have had notable success ensuring victims of SUV accidents receive the maximum compensation allowed when it is proven that the accident was caused by an inherent flaw in an SUV’s design or manufacture. One recent case represented by Michie Hamlett ended with a jury verdict of $14,000,000 for the estates of a young couple who were killed when the Ford Bronco II in which they were riding rolled over. The Akron jury awarded another $3,500,000 to the driver - who survived the accident.

Our attorneys are also currently representing several victims who were killed or seriously injured in Ford Explorer and Hyundai Sante Fe rollover accidents. Besides the issue of the stability design defect, these cases involve inadequate roof structure or strength (roof crush) and defective seat belts. If you or a loved one has been involved in an SUV accident and are seeking uncompromising legal representation for an injury or death, contact our office today.