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Attorney of Record for
C. Tab Turner
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Rollover crashes Angelique Cintron, a 19-year old student at Florida State University, was violently killed on November 7, 1997, in a single vehicle rollover accident involving her Kia Sportage sport utility vehicle. Angie was on her way to her West Palm Beach home for the weekend when, according to eyewitnesses, a black sports car cut sharply in front of her on the Florida Turnpike south of Orlando. She was forced to take evasive action at 70 miles per hour. Notwithstanding her efforts to avoid a crash, her 1995 Kia Sportage rolled over approximately 6 times. Angelique was wearing a seat belt, but the roof crushed. She died of head injuries. Her parents sued the South Korean car manufacturer alleging that the Sportage is unsafe because it rolls over too easily, has a weak roof, and is marketed unsafely to the public as a safe and stable passenger vehicle. Kia denied that the Sportage was prone to roll over or that it had an unsafe roof, contending that the small SUV is safe, and that Angelique's death was caused by a combination of the black sports car, Angelique's own alleged careless driving, and the severity of the crash. The West Palm Beach jury disagreed: "It was a serious design failure in that car that failed to protect the occupant," the jury foreman said. Tab Turner and Ted Babbitt, the attorneys for Angelique's parents, argued that several defects contributed to the fatality: the collapsed roof, a windshield that popped out during the roll, and an instability that caused the Sportage to roll in the first place. "They want to point their fingers at everybody but themselves," Turner said. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) classifies sport utility vehicles (SUV) as a light truck vehicle, along with pickups and vans. The agency has recognized that rollover crashes are one of the most significant safety problems for all classes of light vehicles, especially light trucks.
Crash data collected by NHTSA from the various states indicate that in rollover crashes, light truck vehicles are involved in 127% as many crashes as are passenger cars. Analyzing these statistics from another perspective, according to a government study, pickups and SUVs have a rollover rate that is 2-3 times higher than the average passenger car. A study performed for the Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association has also recognized the significant difference between rollover rates for passenger cars versus sport utility vehicles. Statistics gathered between 1992-1996 reveal an average of 227,000 rollover crashes per year. These rollovers resulted in an average of 9,063 fatalities per year and more than 200,000 non-fatal injuries. Rollover Resistance Rating NHTSA's Rollover Resistence Rating system {Star Rating System} is designed to measure vehicle characteristics of the center of gravity and track width {T/2h}. The more narrow and tall the vehicle is, the more susceptible it is to rolling over.
Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) According to the 1997 FARS, almost 10,000 people were killed in light vehicle rollovers during that year, including morethan 7,600 who died in single-vehicle rollovers. FARS analysis shows that 53% of light vehicle occupant deaths in single-vehicle crashes involved rollovers. And the proportion is notably different by vehicle type: 45% of car occupant fatalities in single-vehicle crashes involved rollover, compared to 60% for pickup trucks, 65% for vans, and 79% for SUVs. These statistics support the proposition that rollover crashes are the most dangerous type of collision for all classes of light vehicles whether measured by fatalities or by incapacitating injuries for each occupant. The data are even more alarming when one considers that rollover accidents are the least frequent crash mode per registered vehicle. Buyer Beware: When measured by either fatalities or debilitating injuries for each occupant involved:
(10/30/02)
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