Illinois Auto Accident Attorneys on Side Impact Protection Failure
According to Illinois personal injury lawyers who specialize in auto accidents, a side impact collision can often be more hazardous than a head-on crash. Unlike a head-on collision, where the front of the car (or “crumple-zone”) can absorb a great deal of the impact, if you’re hit from the side, there are only several inches of door and glass separating you from the oncoming vehicle.
The Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) reports that 10,000 deaths a year (about 25%) occur as a result of crashes to the side of the car. Due to these alarming statistics, auto manufactures have begun including side impact airbags in most of their new cars.
But Chicago personal injury attorneys explain that although side air bags can help (that is, if they work properly), they still offer little protection in a serious broadside crash. And they offer almost no protection against head injuries at all (a leading cause of death in side impact collisions). NHTSA, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, estimates that in side-impact crashes involving at least one fatality, nearly 60 percent of those killed have suffered brain injuries.
All vehicles on the road today must pass the government’s side impact standard, but Illinois personal injury lawyers who represent many of these cases say the standards are outdated. For one thing, the government only uses a dummy representing an average size male, which doesn’t register head injuries. And, its test only looks at what happens when similar size vehicles collide.
Unlike front air bags, side air bags are not required by NHTSA, even though studies show that if all the vehicles on U.S. roads were equipped with proper head protection side air bags, 700 to 1,000 lives would be saved per year in side impact crashes. Because they are not required safety equipment, the federal government does not mandate that vehicles be equipped with side air bags. In Chicago, personal injury attorneys are hoping to see this change as promised by the year 2013.
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