The Cassidy Law Firm Blog

Thursday, November 19, 2020

What Causes Rollover Accidents?

Rollover accidents are scary. In a rollover crash, one or more vehicles involved have either tipped over on its side or has rolled over to its roof as a result of a collision. The consequences can, of course, be devastating. There is a serious possibility of catastrophic, even fatal, injuries occurring in such a crash. This is especially true considering rollover crash can often result in the total or partial ejection of an occupant from the vehicle. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety reported that in just 2015, there were 22,543 fatalities of passenger vehicle occupants and 7,210 of those deaths occurred in rollover crashes. What, then, tends to cause rollover accidents? We look more into that here in the hopes that knowing the causes can help people better avoid these awful crashes.

Causes of Rollover Accidents

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), reports that the vast majority of rollover accidents occur due to “tripping.” Tripping describes the situation where the tire of a vehicle strikes something that interrupts the motion of the vehicle causing it to be tossed forwards or into a sideways roll. A vehicle can be “tripped” by things like the shoulder of a road, a bump, or a curb.

High speeds have also been commonly cited as contributing to a rollover crash. This is true in both single and multi-vehicle car crashes. When a vehicle strikes another vehicle or some other obstacle or object at a high speed, the force of that impact can have devastating results. The car may be forced over onto its side or roof as a result of such an impact.

Unfortunately, drugs and alcohol also present as a common thread in many rollover accidents. The recklessness and lack of judgment of a person under the influence while operating a vehicle can have tragic results. With serious impairment in judgment and the ability to safely operate the vehicle, such drivers place others on the road at serious risk of being involved in something like a rollover crash.

Vehicle defects are also commonly the cause of rollover accidents. Either a design defect or a manufacturing defect may be the culprit in making a vehicle at a serious risk of a rollover accident. For instance, it is common for new vehicles to come equipped with electronic stability control (ESC). ESC is supposed to help prevent a vehicle from rolling over in a crash. Should this feature fail to properly operate, however, the vehicle may be more likely to roll over in a crash.

It should also be noted that some vehicles are more prone to rolling over because they are designed in a particular way. For instance, SUVs and larger cars like minivans and pickup trucks tend to have higher centers of gravity which make the vehicle more likely to rollover, even in more mild crashes.

New Jersey Personal Injury Attorneys

Have you been injured in a rollover crash? Please reach out to the trusted team of personal injury attorneys at the Cassidy Law Firm. Contact us today.


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