JANUARY 21, 2019
What makes a side-impact car crash so dangerous?
In many car crashes, side-impact collisions known as "t-bone" accidents, are more dangerous because they can create traumatic, often compound injuries.
What makes a side-impact car crash more dangerous than other types of collisions? Do side-curtain airbags, roll cages, and other safety features provide adequate protection to passengers when a t-bone accident occurs? Side-impacts are more dangerous because they can create traumatic, often compound injuries. These include Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), severe neck injuries, back injuries, and injuries to the vital organs. In many cases, vehicle occupants suffer compound injuries. Side-curtain airbags and other safety features provide some protection against serious injury. However, these features do not provide comprehensive protection that can eliminate the potential for serious injury or death when a side-impact motor vehicle accident occurs.
According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, side-impact collisions, commonly known as "t-bone" accidents involving passenger vehicles accounted for 1,161, or 25% of single-vehicle fatalities in 2016. In pickups, the number of fatalities was 394, or 14%. The number of fatalities occurring in SUV's involved in single-vehicle, side-impact accidents, was 360, or 13% of SUV fatalities.
In multi-vehicle crashes, that number of passenger vehicle fatalities suffered in side-impact collisions rose to 2,869, or 35% of fatalities. For pickups, the number was 455, or 24%. In SUV's, the number of fatalities was 568, or 26% of all recorded SUV fatalities. In both single and multi-vehicle accidents, side-impact fatalities were second only to the number of fatalities suffered in frontal collisions.
Seat-belts provide reliable protection against fatalities for those in the rear seats of a vehicle. However, they do not provide adequate protection against severe injury. Reasons for this include the forces exerted on the body from a side-impact. They provide no protection against contact with the side structure of the vehicle or from deformation of the vehicle. Front seated drivers or passengers within vehicles with a safety rating of "good" or better reduced the risk of fatality by 70% as opposed to vehicles with a lower safety rating.
Our Kansas personal injury lawyers are car accident attorneys who have offices in Wichita and in Garden City. Our team will instantly go to work to prove accident injury victims are not at fault. You can use our contact page or get a free call at our Wichita offices at 316-684-4400 and our Garden City office at 620-843-2855.
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