Rollover Motor Vehicle Accidents

Daniel Buckfire

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Rollover motor vehicle accidents quite often result in life altering injuries, permanent disability or even death. Determining the cause of an SUV rollover and the parties responsible is a difficult and complex process. The auto and tire industries have been slow to accept responsibility for the design defects which cause or contribute to cause vehicles to roll over. In almost every case, they attempt to blame the driver for failure to maintain control of the vehicle or driving too fast for conditions.

Personal injuries from rollover accidents can occur in any vehicle including passenger vehicles, but minivans, pickup truck and sport utility vehicle (SUV) have a greater chance of a single vehicle crash rollover. This is primarily due to the fact that these vehicles are taller (higher center of gravity) and narrower.

Even a 5 start rated vehicle has a 10% chance of a roll over accident.[1] Per the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), about 95% of rollovers are tripped - meaning the vehicle strikes something low, such as a curb or shallow ditch, causing it to tip over. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) lists the causes of rollover accidents:

Most rollovers occur when a driver loses control of a vehicle, and it begins to slide sideways. When this happens, something can "trip" the vehicle and cause it to roll over. This tripping object could be a curb, guardrail, tree stump, or soft or uneven ground on the side of the roadway. Rollovers also can occur when a driver attempts to turn a vehicle too aggressively — at a high velocity or with a tight turning radius. In such conditions, the frictional force between the tires and road surface can cause the vehicle to tip up and then roll over. These crashes generally are referred to as "untripped" or "frictional" rollovers. Though less frequent, rollovers can be caused by other factors, such as when one side of a vehicle is flipped up suddenly by a guardrail or other ramp-like object or when a vehicle falls sideways or front-first down an embankment.

A multiple-vehicle crash can initiate a rollover if it causes a driver to lose control, or a vehicle may roll directly after being struck in the side by another vehicle. However, about three-fourths of vehicles that rollover in fatal crashes are in single-vehicle crashes. More than half of all occupants killed in single-vehicle crashes are involved in rollovers.

NHTSA data also show that nearly 85% of all rollover-related fatalities are the result of single-vehicle crashes. This means that the majority of rollover crashes and fatalities do not involve any other vehicle besides the one that rolled over, further suggesting that driver behavior plays a significant role in rollover crashes. Furthermore, NHTSA data also suggest that over 90% of the vehicles in fatal, single-vehicle rollover crashes were involved in routine driving maneuvers (going straight or negotiating a curve) at the time of the crash. This further suggests that driver behavior (distraction, inattentiveness, speeding, and impaired driving) plays a significant role in rollover crashes.

[1] Safecar.gov; NHTSA;