NY Auto Roof Crush / Rollover Accident Attorneys

New York Auto Accident Injury Lawyers

A roof crush occurs in rollover accidents when the roof supports of a car or SUV are not strong enough to withstand the combined force and weight of the vehicle, allowing the roof to collapse into the passenger compartment. Serious head, neck and spinal cord injuries are frequently the result of a roof crush. In fact, 89% of all roof-injured drivers receive their most serious injury from the roof crush.

It is often said that in the absence of roof crush, rollover accidents are relatively non-violent accidents for seat-belted passengers. This is true because the automobile is slowing as it rolls. Whether or not a roof crush occurs can therefore significantly affect the outcome of a victim's injuries in a rollover accident.

Manufacturer Liability in a Roof Crush Accident Case:

Automobile manufacturers have a legal duty to design and manufacture vehicles in a way that provides for the safety of vehicle occupants. This means that manufacturers must design and build cars and other vehicles in ways that prevent certain foreseeable accident injuries, including roof crush injuries.

Evidence from court cases has shown that automobile manufacturers at times have known that a roof design for vehicles destined for the marketplace has been deficient. Despite knowing that the defective roof would expose vehicle occupants to the risk of death or serious injury in a roof crush, the same manufacturers have failed to take action. Such failure has resulted in needless deaths and injuries. It is clear from some of these cases that an underlying motive for such abhorrent inaction has been to save money and avoid delaying production of the vehicles.

In other court cases, there has been evidence that design defects that would lead to a roof crush were revealed to automobile manufacturers in their own testing. The manufacturers in some of these cases suppressed these results and green-lighted the vehicles for production, despite the manufacturers' knowledge of the unreasonable potential for a deadly roof crush.

Whether the defect that leads to a roof crush is in the design or manufacture of the roof, the manufacturer of a car built with a weak roof should be held accountable for roof crush injuries.

Types of Compensation that can be Recovered in a Roof Crush Accident:

If you have suffered injuries in a roof crush accident, you may be entitled to a monetary recovery to compensate you for losses. Some of the damages to which you may be entitled include:

• Past and Current Medical Bills
• Future Medical Costs
• Lost Wages
• Future Loss of Earnings and Earning Capacity
• Pain and Suffering
• Diminished Quality of Life

Have you been the victim of a roof crush / rollover accident? The Goidel and Siegel Law Group of New York has successfully represented thousands of accident victims and obtained exceptional results in a wide variety of serious injury cases.

Contact our NY auto accident attorneys for a free consultation today.