Roof Crush and Crashworthiness

The history of the crashworthiness of roof structures in vehicles is an odd one. Surprisingly, some of the early vehicles manufactured in this country had roofs that would resist crushing into the occupant survival space in all but the most severe accidents. Unfortunately, car manufacturers have many times given cost savings, style and marketing programs and weight reduction a higher priority than maintaining an adequate survival space for occupants in a crash.

Additionally, the federal government’s minimum standards allow passenger vehicles to pass federally mandated testing even though the roofs are unreasonably dangerous. The federal testing does not require that roofs withstand the dynamic forces of foreseeable crash scenarios that could and should be survivable.

The team at Brent Coon and Associates consults with leading authorities in the field of structural integrity of vehicle roofs and other component parts. Your vehicle should be designed to maintain adequate survival space for the occupants in the even of most crashes. If you or someone you care about has suffered a serious injury in a crash involving substantial roof crush, contact us for a free consultation. We want to help you and do our part to bring sanity and safety back to the concept of maintaining adequate survival space for occupants of vehicles involved in crashes and rollovers.