New Jersey Structural Crashworthiness Attorneys
Since the 1960's, motor vehicle manufacturers and their engineers have recognized that every vehicle should be built around a sturdy "safety cage" which forms the backbone of every vehicle’s safety system. That safety cage - which is also referred to as a "non-encroachment zone" or as "survival space" - is often the first line of defense for people involved in a crash. Despite the fact that the safety cage concept has been universally accepted in the automotive industry, car manufacturers sometimes take shortcuts in vehicle design, development and testing; shortcuts which unfortunately have left many cars with serious structural weaknesses, which are only discovered after someone is injured or killed. While some manufacturers comprehensively test vehicle structures, other manufacturers only do the testing required to pass minimum federal safety standards. As a result, some vehicles perform very well in common accident scenarios, while others do very poorly.
Some of the more common structural failures happen when vehicles impact narrow objects like trees, utility poles or when only part of the front of a vehicle makes contact with another vehicle (also known as an offset crash). Additionally, SUV’s and other trucks are more prone to rollover, a characteristic that makes the strength of their roofs even more important. Unfortunately, many manufacturers have failed to provide adequate roof protection even though doing so requires very little investment and uses decades old technology.
More information regarding structural crashworthiness found here: