Toll Free: 1 800 752 0042

Practice Areas

Firm News

View all

Library

The United States Government Has Recently Announced That It Is Requiring Stability Safety Features To Be Put On All Vehicles In The Future To Prevent Roll-Over Accidents.

The car manufacturers have known about the dangers of vehicle roll-overs for a long time. However, many car makers have not installed the stability control technology on all of their vehicles as they should. This danger of accidents where the car tips over on its side or on its top is a significant safety issue. SUVs and certain other kinds of vehicles are more prone to roll over than other cars. If a roll-over occurs, you also need to make sure that the vehicle has enough crashworthiness to prevent the occupants from being killed or severely injured when a roll-over occurs. This safety feature is accomplished by having sufficient strength in the roof and sides of the vehicle so that if a roll-over occurs, the occupants are not crushed.

Given the significant number of people who are hurt or killed each year in car crashes where a roll-over is involved, it is about time the government required this minimal safety standard. In some aspects of vehicle design and manufacture safety, it requires someone to make the manufacturers do what they should. When we personal injury lawyers bring suit on behalf of families whose loved ones were killed in these roll-over accidents, the automobile makers can just treat the settlements or jury verdicts as a cost of doing business. It may be cheaper for the company to pay on a couple of law suits than to have to redesign their product. Additionally, the car makers and their insurers will often fight roll-over and crashworthiness cases tooth and nail claiming that they did not know that it would happen or that it was not the cause of the injuries or death that resulted in a particular accident. The fact that the government is laying down the law with the car makers about this safety feature of their product shows that the personal injury lawyers were, in fact, bringing to everyone’s attention the danger that was posed and the relative ease of solution of the problem. When trial lawyers cause safety changes in products that is exactly the kind of promotion of justice and usefulness of lawyers that you want in society. Essentially, the personal injury lawyers are making everyone, including the car makers and the government, realize that they should not have ignored this problem of crashworthiness and roll-over for so long. When I see that the government is finally requiring these changes to the car and truck products, it makes me proud that I am a plaintiff's side personal injury lawyer and that I and my fellow injury lawyers have caused a beneficial change for all consumers. Unfortunately, a lot of the vehicles that were made prior to these new changes were required will still be on the road for decades to come, leading to continued injuries and death in automobile accidents from roll-over defects for some time further.

Quick Contact

Shapiro, Cooper Lewis & Appleton, P.C.
1294 Diamond Springs Road
Virginia Beach, VA 23455

Toll Free: (800) 752.0042
Phone: (757) 460-7776
Fax: (757) 460.3428

Directions