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New Deadline for Rollover Roof Crush Rule Draws Near
June 18, 2008

There seem to be signs of progress in an ongoing tussle between the automotive industry on one side, and auto safety advocates on the other. A deadline of July 1 has been set for the NHTSA to upgrade existing roof crush standard rules to prevent the number of injuries that occur in rollover accidents across the country each year.

More than 9,000 people were killed in rollover accidents in 2006 alone, and the causes of these fatalities have been a bone of contention between the auto manufacturers, represented by the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers on the one side, and auto safety groups on the other. The manufacturers continue to maintain that a number of factors, not related to the mechanics or construction of the vehicle, contribute to these fatalities. They point to the use of alcohol and drugs and the part that speeding plays in causing rollover accidents. Roof stability and strength, they insist, are not factors in these deaths. In other words, the vehicles they manufacture come with high safety standards, and for causes of these increasing rollover-related deaths, people should look at factors related to the driver in the accident.

The current roof crush standards call for pressure of up to 1.5 times of the unloaded weight of the vehicle to be applied to one side of the vehicle during testing. In consecutive proposals, that force has been increased to 2.5, and testing was proposed to be conducted on both the driver and passenger sides of the vehicle. The current standards were put into place in1973, so basically people have been driving around in vehicles built using safety standards that were established back when the traffic and road conditions were different from today.

This delay in coming up with an effective roof crush rule that will be fair to car drivers and will protect them in the event of a collision is frustrating enough, but what has really rankled about the NHTSA proposal is the provision of preemption. Basically, the proposal limits a person's ability to take legal course in the event of a roof crush accident, thereby making things very convenient for the automakers.

One wonders who the NHTSA is supposed to be working for here - to make driving safer for people, or to make it easier for corporations to save billions in legal fees. This provision in the rule has surprised many, and has spurred many democratic senators to threaten they would block any such proposal of preemption.

This inclusion of preemption in the proposal for boosting roof crush levels is curious - why has the NHTSA suddenly decided to include preemption in its proposal? Shouldn't focus be to get a rule that effectively strengths roofs to ensure that drivers aren't injured severely, - and hopefully do so as quickly as possible without waiting for another 35 years - instead of formulating a proposal that allows auto manufacturers to get away scot-free after their defective manufactured vehicles have maimed or killed people. 9,000 people dying in mostly preventable circumstances is not a laughing matter. It's sad a day for our country if we continue to put the greed of corporations ahead of the safety of our citizens.

The Reeves Law Group is a law firm with offices throughout California dedicated exclusively to the representation of personal injury victims, including victims of roof crush. Please visit our website at trlglaw.com. If you desire a free consultation on a personal injury matter, please call us at (800) 644-8000 or email us.

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