How Seat Belts Function in a Roll-Over
Traditional seat belt systems are ill‑equipped to account for the vehicle dynamics of a rollover. In a rollover, however, seat belts are critical in limiting occupant excursion. Occupant excursion is the extent to which an occupant’s body moves out of its original seating position during a collision event.
Typically, the greater the excursion, the greater the chance of injury.
Many retractors, by design, let out excess slack during a rollover because the mechanism for locking the retractor is ineffective while the vehicle is rolling or because the retractor contains a “torsion bar” that is improperly adjusted. As a result, instead of staying locked throughout the rollover, some seat belt retractors will lock and unlock as the vertical and horizontal forces on the vehicle change, instead of staying locked.
When Occupants Are Thrown Around Inside (or Thrown Out Of) a Vehicle in a Rollover, We Want to Know Why
We depend on automobile manufacturers to make our vehicles safe for us, including during the course of a rollover accident. When occupants wearing seat belts in the vehicle are thrown around inside a vehicle, or ejected from the vehicle, we want to know why this occurred. There should not be any assumption that because a vehicle sustains a rollover, it should be expected that the occupants of the vehicle will be seriously injured or killed.
In rollover cases, our firm typically will hire experts and accident investigators to learn about the nature of the crash and determine whether the injuries to the occupants were avoidable. In many cases, vehicle manufacturers could have taken extra precaution designing vehicles to help ensure the safety of occupants in rollover crashes.
If You or a Loved One Has Been In a Rollover Accident, Please Call Me.
It’s important that we seek to preserve seat belts and related vehicle evidence immediately before these components are damaged or lost, as this evidence may be critical in proving liability. Our firm will seek to locate and preserve this evidence as soon as possible so that it cannot be taken or tampered with.
After your call, I will meet with you for a free private consultation, where I can explain the legal process and how you can seek recovery for those responsible for your injuries. . If you retain our firm, we will work for you on a contingency fee basis. This means that you will not owe us any fees for our work unless we recover damages for you.