Car Crashworthiness

Car accidents and truck accidents are two of the leading causes of fatalities in the United States and on Illinois roads and highways. Often times the failure of the vehicle’s structures are a leading cause of injury and death to passengers. Automobiles and trucks are designed to be crashworthy. The technology in improving the safety of motor vehicles has been increasing over the years. Vehicles today are safer than ever yet there are still known defects that lead to or cause fatalities on America’s highways and roadways.

Automobiles come manufactured with a steel cage that serves as a kind of a safety net around the shell of the vehicle. These vehicle safety cages are designed to protect passengers by distributing the forces of the collision around the cage so that it softens the blow of a crash on the vehicle’s occupants.

Safety cages are made of high-strength steel in most areas of the vehicle and are designed to work in conjunction with other safety features of the car including seat and shoulder safety belts and airbags. At the same time that the safety cages are designed to protect passengers, they are also come with a fuel efficiency aspect. In other words, parts of the safety features of today’s motor vehicles have lower density steel that reduces weight and allows for greater fuel efficiency without sacrificing safety.

There is no doubt that the safety features that are integral to making of cars and trucks today prevent serious injuries and deaths in many collision cases that could not have been avoided decades earlier.

Vehicle crashworthiness relates to the protection of passengers in collisions that come from the front, the sides or the rear. There are also design features in vehicle crashworthiness that prevents the crush of the roof of a motor vehicle in case of a rollover. The idea in all of this is to lessen the amount of crush areas to the structure of the motor vehicle, restrain the passengers by seatbelts and airbags, allow for the forces of collisions to be widely distributed to minimize injuries and deaths and also to prevent the onset of fuel-fed fires in the aftermath of a crash.

In modern motor vehicles, the vehicle’s crashworthiness safety systems are designed to function collectively with the other safety features of the vehicle. This would allow for alternative methods for protecting vehicle occupants from injury if one of the safety features in the vehicle fail.

It comes as no surprise that many car and truck accidents cause very serious injuries whereas other types of collisions cause minimal injuries. Whether the occupants of a vehicle were injured or killed because of the force of the crash or because of some crashworthiness defect, is a matter of investigation. Each motor vehicle crash must be investigated from all aspects of cause and effect. In addition, the question has to be answered as to whether or not the injuries suffered by passengers and drivers were the result of a defect in design or vehicle crashworthiness as opposed to negligence on the part of another motor vehicle operator. If the injuries are caused by a defect in the design of a vehicle or if the vehicle does not meet vehicle crashworthiness standards, there may be a cause of action against the manufacturer or component part maker, depending on the circumstances.

If you or someone you know has been injured or killed in an automobile crash, please call us for an immediate free consultation.

Robert Kreisman of Kreisman Law Offices has been handling product defect/liability injury cases. Kreisman Law Offices has prevailed in trials and settlements in Chicago, Illinois and surrounding communities and has successfully resolved cases for those injured in product defect cases.

With our 40 years of experience in trying and settling product defect cases, Kreisman Law Offices provides the best possible services to our clients and have achieved unsurpassed results. Our service is unmatched. Please call us 24 hours a day at 312.346.0045 or toll free 800.583.8002 for a free and immediate consultation, or complete a contact form online. There is no charge for a consultation that will include an evaluation of your case, assessment of damages such as lost income, lost wages, medical and hospital bills, past and future pain and suffering, loss of normal life and wrongful death.

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