Texas Personal Injury Lawyers – Jim Adler & Associates – Blog

Senior drivers fastest growing demographic on the planet

That’s why Swedish car manufacturer Volvo is studying how age-related changes put seniors at risk on the road. So far, the company’s research shows that older drivers have more accidents at intersections, although they tend to have fewer crashes overall. The car company wants to know why. To date, its studies have revealed two differences: Older drivers have less flexibility in the neck and a narrower field of vision. They also concentrate more on lines and marks on the road when positioning their cars compared to younger drivers who focus more attention on moving objects and other cars.
Volvo is trying to design a car that takes these factors, and others it may discover, into account and compensates for them. It’s a good thing. A United Nations report says over the next 40 years, drivers over the age of 60 will comprise more than 50% of all drivers in the developed world.

A knock at the door rousts a woman out of bed. Her husband is off on his motorcycle doing an errand. One look at police on her front porch and she guesses the awful truth. He’s been killed. The man who hit him was drunk. A man driving his family to Mexico for a Christmas vacation is rear-ended at 90 miles an hour by a drunk driver. His wife and son are dead at the scene. His mother dies later.
A woman in a pickup truck is knocked off a freeway overpass in the dark by a drunk driver and left to die in a ditch. Her husband and son find her body two hours later when she doesn’t come home.
Accidents like these occur every day. Those grieving for loved ones killed by drunk drivers say the pain never ends. That’s where Mothers Against Drunk Driving steps in. MADD offers them a range of services, from money for groceries and funeral expenses to accompanying families to court during legal proceedings against drunk drivers that can last for months, and sometimes, years. The money in Texas comes from a state fund for victims. MADD can access it in three to five days, according to the Director of Victim Services in MADD’s San Antonio office.
“MADD is an ear to listen, a shoulder to lean on and a hand to hold,” says Jennifer Hathaway, another MADD executive in Texas, describing the services the organization provides to those who have lost loved ones to drunk driving anywhere in the country. Staffers at MADD are trained to help victims with all aspects of a drunk-driving crash as long as they are needed. Contact the Victims Helpline at 1-877-MADD-HELP. Attorney Jim Adler, who has represented victims of drunk drivers for more than 30 years, is a strong supporter of the one organization entirely devoted to helping victims of drunk drivers. Jim Adler & Associates is underwriting a video to make more people aware of the services that MADD offers drunk driving accident victims.

Are SUVs Crashworthy?

They are big. They make you feel safe. But under certain circumstances the SUV is a hearse. It’s a vehicle that can easily take your life in a rollover accident or inflict catastrophic, life-altering injuries. Some experts say, the very height and size of an SUV limits its crashworthiness. Manufacturing defects, such as weak roofs and improper safety restraint systems, further reduce the SUVs ability to protect passengers in accidents. Not one single SUV received the highest safety rating awarded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Association in 2003. In 2005, NHTSA reported that approximately 10,000 people die each year in vehicle rollover accidents, many in SUVs. Sixty percent of these victims weren’t wearing seatbelts. According to data in 2007 from Consumer Reports, another 24,000 victims suffered catastrophic injuries including paralysis and brain damage in rollovers.

The Danger of the Double Lane Change in an SUV

The rate of SUV rollovers is two to three times greater than that of cars. Because SUVs have a higher center of gravity and because their height makes them more top heavy, they are more prone to rollover, especially when swerving abruptly to avoid hitting an object or person. Double lane-change is a test that measures the maneuverability of the SUV. In real life, a double lane change often occurs when an SUV driver is trying to avoid an accident. This sudden maneuver can easily cause the SUV to tip on two wheels, resulting in a roll over. This type of rollover occurred frequently in 2000 with Ford/Firestone vehicles, leaving hundreds dead and many more injured.

Tragedies Caused by SUV Roof Crushes

In rollover accidents, roof crush is the primary cause of serious injury and death. In 2005, NHTSA estimated that there are 596 fatalities and 807 serious injuries annually caused by passenger contact with a collapsed roof during a rollover crash. An SUV needs a strong roof to create the “survival space” necessary to protect occupants during a rollover crash. Despite heavy criticism from vehicle safety advocacy groups, SUV manufacturers are not installing the types of roll bars needed to protect occupants during rollovers. Manufacturers say it’s the force of the impact that causes injury and death, not the design of the roof. As long as they resist new roof safety designs, thousands of catastrophic injuries and deaths can be expected each year.

New Roof Standards Not Implemented

In 1973 the government created the Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 216 that measures the integrity of roof structure in motor vehicles. Under this standard, a roof pillar on a passenger car cannot deform more than five inches when subjected to a force 1 ½ times the vehicle’s weight or 6,000 lbs. Since this test applies only to vehicles that weigh six thousand pounds or less, and since most SUVs weigh more than that, they are virtually exempt from this 30-year-old compulsory standard. In 2005, NHTSA proposed a new roof crush standard that would increase vehicle weight to 10,000 to include SUVs. By March 2008 it had still not been approved.

While new models of SUVs have been improved to combat the vehicle’s propensity to rollover, thousands of older SUVs are still on the road, exposing drivers and passengers to catastrophic injuries, killing and maiming those who bought the vehicles for “safety.” While the SUV created the illusion of safety on the road because of its size compared to other vehicles, the image was deceiving. The older SUV is three times more likely to rollover than any other passenger vehicle, according to SUV Rollover Statistics www.onlinelawyersource.com. SUVs had the highest rollover rate of any vehicle involved in fatal crashes and the highest rollover rate for passenger vehicles in injury crashes. And rollovers are the deadliest types of accidents.www.pbs.org. They frequently cause head trauma – the most serious type of fatal and nonfatal injury in a rollover, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (www.suvrollovernews.com). Adding to the danger, “…the overwhelming majority of rollovers occur during ordinary situations,” says NHTSA, when a driver swerves to avoid a stopped car or accidentally veers off the road. Because the SUV has a higher center of gravity, it is less stable on the road. Defective tires have also played a role in older SUV accidents. And particular models of older SUVs are noted for being involved in serious rollover accidents. “In 2003, almost 4,500 people died in SUV accidents, a twenty two percent increase from 2001.” www.onlinelawyersource.com. Since older SUVs have none of the new built-in safety features that make them less likely to roll over, drivers of older models would do well to consult an attorney if their SUV is involved in an accident to make sure their legal rights are protected.