Public Citizen has great information about roof crush and rollover incidents on its website. The site informs about the dangers of rollovers and the automobile industry’s knowledge of those dangers.
The site has a study of 54 rollovers and concludes that “the majority of roof damage occurs on the side of the roof opposite the side that leads into the roll. When the leading side strikes the ground, the vehicle’s glass shatters and the roof pillars buckle, meaning that when the far side subsequently hits the ground, the roof strength has already been severely compromised. Consequently, the roof collapses, killing or severely injuring the occupant on that side. Moreover, further rolling can continue to crush the entire.”
The site reports on another study, “Roof Crush as a Source of Injury in Rollover Crashes,” by Dr. Martha Bidez, Dr. John Cochran, and Dottie King. ACcording to Public Citizen, the study demonstrates: “1) Roof crush is linked to serious injury in rollovers, 2) the industry’s theory that occupants “dive” into the roof is false based on the industry’s own testing data, and 3) dynamic rollover tests produce repeatable results when viewed in the framework of occupant injury and are correlated to real-world data on rollover crashes.”
Especially interesting are the documents from GM and Volvo (a division of Ford) about rollovers. The Volvo documents show the efforts the company has made to reduce the risk of injury and death in rollovers – documents that will prove interesting in cases against its parent, Ford. Read the press release about the documents here.
This site is a wonderful source of information that bears review before you even think about accepting a rollover case.