Rolling with the Punches
Thursday, August 27th, 2009Two car rollover crashes with hardly more than a day in between but with two different fates.
In Chula Vista, a 27-year old man from San Diego died when he lost control of his Chevrolet Tahoe and hit the center median and some trees which caused his vehicle to roll over. Anthony Alvarez, the driver, got ejected and suffered massive head trauma. He died at the scene.
A 21-year old female driver from Laguna Beach had better luck when she escaped unscathed from a single-vehicle rollover crash near 73 freeway. She lost control of her blue Honda Civic and rolled twice as it cut across the lanes. Although uninjured, she was taken to the hospital as a precaution.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, more than half of all motor vehicle occupants killed in single-vehicle crashes are involved in rollovers.
Although rollover accidents account for less than 3 percent of police reported passenger vehicle crashes, 23 percent of rollovers result to fatal crashes. In 2007, a total of 10,182 people died in crashes where their vehicle rolled over.
Although the vehicle design is a huge factor for rollover accidents (SUVs and pick-ups with a higher center of gravity is more prone to roll over), most are actually caused by driver behavior. Most rollovers occur when a driver loses control of a vehicle, slides sideways and is tripped by an object like a curb, guardrail, or even uneven ground which causes it to rollover.
Vehicle rollovers can also happen when a driver attempts to turn a vehicle too aggressively — usually when it goes too fast before making a sharp turn.
Rollover accidents, as facts have proven, are fatal. But while it is difficult to actually prevent getting involved in rollover accidents, the risk of a driver and passenger fatality in the event of such can be considerably reduced.
According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the majority of the people killed in rollover crashes were unrestrained. Safety belt use is the single most important and effective way to reduce the risk of injury or death in a rollover.
Alvarez, the man from San Diego likely got ejected from the vehicle because he was not wearing a seatbelt unlike the young woman in Laguna Beach who managed to emerge from her rollover accident intact and alive.
Without safety belts, occupants in vehicles that roll can be thrown from the vehicle, greatly increasing the risk of serious injury or death. The two-seconds you take to click on your seatbelt makes the difference between literally rolling with it (and surviving) or getting kicked out (and on to another plane of existence).
