California SUV Rollover Lawyer

SUV Models With Poor Rollover Accident Records

Some SUVs have a higher likelihood of rollover than others. Ford Explorer rollover accidents have numbered in the thousands. The NHTSA ranked the Ford Explorer Sport Trac as having the highest risk of rollover accidents in a test conducted in 2004. Ford Explorers have a rollover risk in single vehicle crashes of 30%-40%. In 2003, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that the two-wheel drive, two-door Ford Explorers manufactured from 1999-2002 had the fourth-highest rate of driver death of the 47 vehicles studied. The Ford Explorer, Ford Bronco and Ford Ranger were built on the same body platform and all have a high rate of rollovers. What all of these Ford models have in common is a narrow wheelbase and a high center of gravity. In other words, they are top-heavy. Lateral forces applied to the vehicle, such as those generated in a sudden turn, create an unreasonably high risk of rollover accidents.

Sales of Ford Explorers have been exceedingly profitable. Historically those sales generated a profit margin in the 40% range. Ford could have afforded to make safety enhancements to significantly improve the Explorers' tendency to rollover. Even with improvements to the way the body was built in 1995 Explorers, there continued to be a high risk for Ford Explorer rollover accidents, because with the changes, Ford raised the center of gravity. Had Ford taken its own engineers' recommendations at that time to lower the Ford Explorers' center of gravity by lowering the engine, this may have reduced the number of rollover accidents involving this model.

SUV Rollovers and Tread Separation

Ford management made many decisions initially and over the years that have cost hundreds of people their lives and caused many more to suffer serious injuries from rollover accidents. One particularly egregious decision made by Ford was to recommend a very low tire pressure for Explorers in order to increase the stability and soften the ride. The under-inflated tires, many of which were made by Firestone, experienced tread separation, particularly at high temperatures. Many Explorer rollover accidents were caused by tread separation at or below legal highway speeds.

Although defective tires have triggered hundreds of Ford Explorer rollover accidents, tire problems caused only 1/10 of the 1,200 Explorer rollover deaths since 1991, according to a New York Times report in 2000. The New York Times analysis found that Explorer rollover accident victims were 2.3 times more likely to die in a rollover accident as occupants in traditional cars, and nearly twice as likely to die in rollover accidents as occupants of Jeep Cherokees and Grand Cherokees. At the time these models were the only SUVs built like cars, with a lower center of gravity and thus less prone to rollover accidents.

The Role of Roof Crush in SUV Rollover Accidents

Rollover accidents involving the Ford Explorer, as well as other Ford models, such as the Escape, the old Bronco, the Ranger, and F-150s often resulted in particularly severe injuries, due to structurally deficient roofs that compressed into the passenger compartment during rollover accidents. Ford was advised by one of its engineers in 1993 to strengthen the Explorers' roof supports, but failed to do so contending it was not federally mandated. In a recent case in California, where a Ford Explorer occupant sustained catastrophic injuries caused by the SUV's roof crush in a rollover accident, the evidence showed that for approximately $30 per vehicle, Ford could have strengthened the roof considerably and the injuries might have been averted. Ford has the technology to improve the strength of its roofs. Since acquiring Volvo in 1999, Ford has fought vigorously in court to keep hidden from the public the details of the Volvo XC90's much stronger roof design.

Rollover Accidents Involving Jeep CJ, Jeep Cherokee, Jeep Wrangler and Jeep Grand Cherokee

Ford is not the only automaker with a significant history of SUV rollover accidents. Jeep rollover accidents have also been common. Jeep, which produced the original SUV, claims a large share of rollover accidents among its SUV models. The Jeep CJ had major problems with rollovers. The Jeep Wrangler also has been prone to rollovers, as have the Jeep Cherokee and Jeep Grand Cherokee.

These SUV's also have had problems with weak seatbacks and defective seatbelts. Seat-belted occupants of Jeep Wranglers have been ejected when their seatbacks have collapsed in Jeep rollover accidents. In 1992 Daimler Chrysler, the manufacturer of Jeeps, began to use a new seatbelt. As of 2003, according to Public Citizen, 16 million Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep vehicles were equipped with the new Gen3 seatbelt. The Gen3 seatbelt consistently fails the industry standard test for accidental unlatchings. There have been numerous deaths and serious injuries caused by the unlatching of these defective seatbelts in vehicle accidents.

Many other SUV's have also been proven to have accidental rollover tendencies. There are multiple reports of Ford Escape rollovers, Ford Expedition rollovers, Chevy Trailblazer rollovers, Suzuki Samurai rollovers, Isuzu Trooper rollovers, Toyota 4Runner rollovers, GMC rollovers and others. These and other models share the same design flaws that plague most SUV's: a wheel base that is too narrow for their high center of gravity.