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Nov 16, 2007 7:02 pm US/Eastern
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SUV Rollover Roof Designs
HIALEAH (CBS4) ―
According to federal safety investigators, rollover accidents are a national problem claiming about 10,000 lives a year.
Some critics say the roof design on SUV's and vans should be changed to improve safety.
A Hialeah family is suing one carmaker from an accident on August 3, 2002.
It was supposed to be a short trip in the family's 1993 Ford Aerostar van.
But it changed Julian Felipe's life forever. "The roof hit me, hit my head and broke my neck," said Felipe.
Doctors told Julian he'd never walk again. After years of therapy, he's still partially paralyzed but he's able to walk with the help of a leg brace and crutch.
He says he thought the family's Ford van was a safe product.
"Today I don't think it's a safe product at all," said Felipe.
According to the family, the accident happened when the right rear tire went bad causing the vehicle to fishtail back and forth. After a while it began rolling, according to the family, finally coming down on the roof. And the force of the impact of the accident crushed the roof down directly on the passenger, Julian Felipe.
In many roll-overs like Julian's the vehicle's roof collapses allowing the weight of the vehicle to crush anyone inside.
Coral Gables attorney Ervin Gonzalez represents Julian's family.
"We sued Ford for the improper roof design that they had and manufacturing of a weak roof and roof systems. The jury agreed with us and awarded six-million dollars against Ford for knowing that they had weak roofs and not doing anything about it," said Gonzalez.
Gonzalez convinced the jury that Ford knew its roofing systems could fail in accidents like Julian's.
"This is a July 8, 1968 internal Ford document written by a safety engineer by the name of Weaver. This was entered as plaintiff's exhibit C in the trial. The document makes it very clear that this safety engineer knew that people could be seat belted and, in a rollover situation, still suffer severe catastrophic injuries or death," said Gonzalez.
That memo recommended changes in the roofing design for the company's vehicles.
Ford says its vehicles meet all required federal safety standards.
The carmaker tells us just making a vehicle's roof stronger doesn't make it safer.
Ford wrote in regard to the jury verdict and safety of Aerostar:
"This was a tragic and severe accident, however, there was no credible evidence introduced at trial to support a jury finding that a vehicle defect caused Mr. Felipe's injury. The 1993 Aerostar performed as designed and exceeded federal standards and it is unfair to blame Ford for Mr. Felipe's injury. We have appealed on the grounds that we do not believe the vehicle is defective."
Ford also wrote the following on its position on roof strength:
"Ford is committed to further improving the safety of its vehicles by advancing the state-of-the art in occupant protection using a variety of new technologies. We are continually developing innovative systems and technologies that can provide practical safety benefits for our customers. Rollover events, real world crash data and a wide variety of rollover-type testing have been investigated and analyzed for many years. Despite these efforts, there continues to be misconceptions of basic rollover mechanics. Simply strengthening the roof won't improve the safety of vehicles in rollovers. Years of testing show strengthening the roof will not affect the outcome of the crash for the simple reason that the injury mechanics are not related to how much the roof is deformed in a rollover crash. We've looked at injury and fatality rates in rollovers involving vehicles that just meet the Federal standard to vehicles that have roof strengths that are multiples of the Federal standard and there isn't a difference. The best protection in an accident is the seat belt."
For more information:
Insurance Industry FAQ's on Rollovers/ Roof Crush Public Citizen Roof Crush Reports
Center for Auto Safety Ford Safety Education
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