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Rollover - Roof Crush In many rollover accidents, the needlessly weak roof buckles and crushes down, causing quadriplegics and fatalities. The passengers may also be ejected from the vehicle when the large tempered glass windows easily shatter completely out. Internal rollover tests by the vehicle manufacturers are too-often kept confidential, so the at-risk public is kept unaware. In a rollover accident, as the roof buckles and crushes downward into the "survival space" of the driver and/or passengers. The dynamic force or crushing load in the vertical axis (Z-axis) is often enough to fracture the cervical vertebrae and cause permanent damage to the spinal cord. Rollover roof crush accidents are a major cause of quadriplegics in the U.S. Our analyses of various roof designs over the years have shown that the windshield header is too often a weak open-section design, the windshield is reinforced at only the bottom few inches, and there are other needless compromises that make the roof much weaker than it easily could and should have been. For mediation and in trial, we show the details of the defective design of the roof at-issue in contrast to the state-of-the-art of what the industry and automaker knew about safer designs. The following are examples of cases in which auto safety expert Byron Bloch testified in trial on behalf of the Plaintiff, using actual roof sections and exhibit boards to educate the Jury.
This Toyota 4Runner SUV rolled over, the weak roof buckled and crushed, and the driver became a quadriplegic. The trial in Florida resulted in a verdict for the Plaintiff.
This Ford Escort rolled over, the weak roof buckled and crushed, and the driver became a quadriplegic. The trial in Louisiana resulted in a verdict for the Plaintiff.
This Toyota RAV4 SUV rolled over, the weak roof buckled and crushed, and the passenger became a quadriplegic. The trial in New Jersey resulted in a verdict for the Plaintiff.
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