Your Tampa Personal Injury Attorney for Sport Utility Vehicle Rollover Accident Lawsuit Cases

Each year, approximately 280,000 rollover accidents are reported in the United States. Claiming more than 10,000 lives annually, these accidents are the most serious danger facing occupants of sport utility vehicles (SUVs), minivans, and trucks. With our experience as an auto accident attorney in Tampa, Clark and Martino, P.A., is quite familiar with the injuries and fatalities caused by rollover accidents. One main reason behind sport utility vehicle rollover accident lawsuit cases is the vehicle’s instability when it makes turns.

While an SUV, pickup truck, and minivan are more susceptible to rollover, a rollover crash can happen in any type of vehicle. Even a vehicle with a 5-star government safety rating has up to a 10 percent risk of rolling over in a single-vehicle accident.

The physics behind SUV, minivan, and pickup truck rollovers are based on the vehicle’s high center of gravity and the track width (the distance between the left and right wheels). When a high center of gravity is combined with a narrow track, there’s a greater chance of the vehicle tipping when it makes a fast turn or starts to skid sideways. Rollovers are more likely to happen when a vehicle strikes a ditch, embankment, curb, guardrail, steep slope, or soft soil. All of these can “trip” the vehicle and result in a rollover. Almost 75 percent of rollover crashes occur on rural roads, and 95 percent of single-vehicle rollovers happen because the vehicle was tripped.

Older SUV designs are particularly unstable. In addition, some SUVs have a less “crashworthy” design because the roof of the vehicle will collapse during an accident. When investigating a sport utility vehicle rollover accident lawsuit, your Tampa personal injury attorney should consider vehicle defects and design problems that could have contributed to your injuries. For more information on hiring a car accident lawyer in Tampa, please call or e-mail Clark and Martino, P.A., about scheduling a free initial consultation about your case.