Philadelphia Car Accident Lawyers Blog

Seat back failure most commonly occurs during rear-end collisions. In a rear-end collision, the car is propelled forward, but the occupants are propelled backward. This applies abrupt pressure to the seat back, which commonly results in failure and severe injury, even in low-speed accidents.
Why seat back failure occurs

Seat backs are commonly designed by manufacturers to keep an occupant from propelling forward during a front-end collision. The overall purpose is to keep the occupant from being ejected or striking the vehicle interior. This safety design is not commonly applied to rear-end collisions, when the occupant is propelled backward.

Seat back failure occurs when seat backs, seat tracks and recliner mechanisms fail, causing the collapse of the seat. This is often attributed, to poor design and flimsy construction.

What injuries result from seat back failure and collapse?

Seat back failure results in serious and often fatal injuries. This often occurs when the occupant is ejected from the seat at the moment of collapse. During seat back failure, the occupant can easily slide out from under safety belts, rendering them useless.

The failure of a seat back results in serious spinal injuries and possible paraplegia and quadriplegia. This is due to the lack of spinal and neck support at the time of impact.

The collapse of the seat back also results in serious injury of the rear seat passengers. When the seat back and occupant collapses onto the rear seat passengers, serious crush injuries result. They often become trapped and are unable to escape the vehicle, causing potential fatalities in the event of fire.
Results of seat back failure

Seat back failure results in:

• Loss of control of the vehicle


• Reduction in seat belt and restraint system effectiveness


• Occupant ejection


• Serious injury to or death of the front and rear seat passengers


• Reduction of occupants ability to escape the vehicle

Continue reading "Seat Back Failure and Collapse" »

Although Rollover Accidents, including SUV rollovers and 15 passenger van rollovers, are not the most common type of accident, they do result in the highest number of fatalities. This is a result of poorly designed and constructed roofs, which crush during the rollover. Roof crush is responsible for serious and fatal injuries such as brain and spinal damage.

Roof crush is most common in SUVs, trucks and large passenger vans, which have a higher center of gravity, leaving them vulnerable for rollover during low-speed collisions, emergency evasive maneuvers and sudden tire failure.

Why roof crush results in injuries

Roof crush results in limited headroom inside the vehicle, which substantially increases the likelihood of a head injury. Strong roof supports and/or rollbars are necessary in order for a roof to maintain its shape during a rollover accident. This will help to prevent the roof from collapsing onto the passengers.

In order for safety features such as airbags and safety belts to work properly, intrusion into the vehicle needs to be limited. When the roof intrudes into the vehicles, the safety features will not be able to fully protect the occupants from injury.

During roof crush, the windshield and side windows become weak and break under the pressure. The open windows allow for occupants to be ejected during the rollover, causing serious and fatal injuries.

Roof crush injuries

Roof crush results in severe injuries to passengers inside the vehicle and passengers ejected from the vehicle. Such injuries are:

• Severe head and brain trauma


• Injury to the spinal cord


• Back and neck injury


• Paralysis (quadriplegia and paraplegia)

Injuries such as these could be easily prevented through proper roof design and construction. With proper roofs, SUV Rollover and 15 Passenger Van Rollover Accidents could be easily survivable. This can be done by adding support to roof pillars through high-density foam or honey combed cardboard.

Continue reading "Roof Crush Injuries caused by SUV Rollovers and 15 Passenger Van Rollovers" »

Hugh DeHaven is considered the 'father of crashworthiness research'. In 1952 he concluded that occupants of a vehicle could endure the forces of a brutal crash without sustaining serious injuries and death if basic principles were adhered to when designing the car. These were:

• The car should not collapse under reasonable or expected force


• Car structures should not be made with brittle or weak materials as they need to be able to absorb the force of a crash


• Passengers should be immobilized within the vehicle and securely held

Unfortunately for consumers, manufacturers are often reluctant to adhere to basic crashworthiness principles, because it makes the car slightly more expensive to produce. As a result, thousands of correctly restrained occupants are killed every year as they are literally crushed by the roof during an accident.

Roofs crushing are almost always associated with vehicle rollovers. Sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and large passenger vans are the most prone to rollovers due to their higher weight and center of gravity. As a result, rollovers injure and kill approximately 10,000 people every year in the United States alone, more than side and rear crashes combined.

The strength of the roof is essential when trying to prevent injuries and deaths in rollovers. However, manufacturers, such as Ford, have long argued that there is no correlation between the strength of the roof and head and spine injuries sustained in rollovers. They allege that the injuries are sustained when the occupants 'dive' into the roof during the accident. This has been proved false by several reports and subsequent SUV rollover lawsuits.

In an attempt to cut costs and shed pounds from their vehicles, manufacturers are cutting inches from the supporting roof structure, which in turn eliminates critical 'survival space' needed for passengers to have optimum chance of surviving the effects of a rollover. The results of such 'cuts' can and are catastrophic. Some common roof crush injuries can include:

• Death


• Traumatic brain injury


• Paralysis


• Quadriplegia


• Spinal Cord Injuries

Continue reading "About SUV Rollovers and Rollover Accidents" »

Seat belts are one of the most important and effective safety features of any vehicle. They have saved lives and prevented serious injury by keeping occupants stable. Seat belts work to prevent injury from impact with the interior or ejection from the vehicle.

When the design or construction of a safety belt fails, serious injury and death can occur. Defective belts may even be responsible for additional injuries, which could have been prevented by proper design and construction.

An seatbelt accident lawyer at our law firm has written this information to help clients who have been injured by defective or faulty seatbelts and who are considering filing an seatbelt accident lawsuit.

Seat belt failures

Lap-Belts: Lap-belt only seat belts have proven to cause serious injury and death when an occupant is ejected from a car. This occurs when they slide out of the restraint during a rear-end collision.

During a front-end collision, the occupant can sustain serious spinal and neck injuries from their upper body being propelled forward without restraint and hitting the interior of the vehicle.

Anchors: If the anchor is improperly placed, the seat belt will be ineffective in preventing injury.

Retractors: A defective retractor may cause slack in the seat belt during an accident, which also renders the seat belt ineffective against preventing injury.

Latches: The forceful impact during a collision can be enough to cause a defective seat belt latch to release. The latch can release as a result of the forceful energy being applied to the buckle as the occupant is forced forward during a collision. This energy can release the tension from the spring in the buckle, which releases the latch.

Release buttons: During a rollover accident, seat belts that are designed with a protruding release button are likely to unlatch. This is due to the uncontrolled movement of passengers and objects in the vehicle hitting the protruding release button, causing the seat belt to unlatch and the passenger to become seriously injured.

Continue reading "Information on Faulty Seatbelts" »