Crashworthiness

We depend on automobiles every day—to get us to work, to get our children to school and to take us on the many adventures we dream about in life. While we may take care to select a reliable vehicle to help us get around everyday, our vehicles may not be as trustworthy as we think. If you are involved in an accident where you sustain injuries due to the failure of your vehicle’s safety features to function properly, you may be able to sue the manufacturer for crashworthiness.

Crashworthiness refers to your vehicle’s ability to protect you in a car accident. It is a type of products liability (see Products Liability) where manufacturers are responsible for the goods they provide to consumers. Sure, none of us hope to ever be in car accident, but the truth is, car accidents are increasingly becoming more of a risk as traffic continues to surge every year.

To determine a vehicle’s crashworthiness, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has set standards that car manufacturers must meet to receive a crashworthiness rating for different types of crashes. Vehicles are tested for their performance in frontal collisions, side-impact crashes and rear-impact crashes.

While these tests give manufacturers and consumers an idea of how much protection a vehicle will offer someone who is involved in a crash, they cannot and do not guarantee that a vehicle is in fact, crashworthy in all circumstances. There are many variables that are not tested for to determine a vehicle’s crashworthiness, such as size of the driver and passengers and where passengers are located in a vehicle when they are involved in a car accident.

Since manufactures cannot test for every type of accident a vehicle may be involved in, they cannot always be certain that their design structure is solid or provides the maximum amount of protection for drivers and passengers in all situations. Manufacturers must, therefore, take reasonable measures to make sure that their vehicles are structurally solid, that their vehicles have safety features in place and that those safety features function properly.

To determine if your injuries are a result of crashworthiness, there must either be some kind of defect with your vehicle’s safety features (e.g., seat belt malfunctions, lack of sufficient roof support, poor fuel tank welds, door latches that release on impact, airbags don’t open properly or at all, etc.), a lack of features that could have prevented injury or a failure to warn consumers of certain design features that may be harmful if used improperly.

If you are involved in a car accident, it is important that you contact a car accident attorney soon after the accident. A car accident attorney should be able to advise you on who is liable (responsible) for your injuries and help you develop a case to receive fair compensation for your damages. Determining liability is often difficult as vehicle manufacturers use parts from other manufacturers in the production of their vehicles. An accident attorney should have experience determining who is at fault and be able help you obtain the recovery you are entitled to from the party that is most responsible for your injuries.

Preserving evidence is essential whenever you are involved in a car accident (see How to Preserve Evidence after a Car Accident), but it is especially important if you suspect that the manufacturer may be responsible for your injuries. Vehicle manufactures will fight tooth-and-nail against any claim filed against them and they have considerable resources to do so. An accident attorney should be able to help you preserve the evidence that you need to make a strong case against your vehicle’s manufacturer.