What does crashworthiness mean?

A vehicle’s crashworthiness refers to its potential to minimize the risk of severe or catastrophic injuries in the event of a collision. The design of the vehicle and its features should reduce the likelihood of serious injuries in virtually all types of crashes, including collisions that occur at various impact speeds, those that involve damage to the fuel system, and those that involve impacts on different sides of the vehicle. A crashworthy vehicle can save lives. A vehicle with inadequately designed crashworthiness features can cause, contribute to, or otherwise play a role in severe or fatal auto accident injuries.

Can you sue a manufacturer for injuries if a vehicle is deemed not to have been crashworthy?

After an accident, severely injured victims may be able to seek compensation from a manufacturer for inadequate vehicle safety features. To succeed in this endeavor, you’re going to need the help of experienced nationwide crashworthiness accident lawyers like Anapol Weiss. We conduct thorough analyses of crashworthiness and the adequacy of safety features, and we use the evidence we gather to establish all elements of the manufacturer’s liability.

How can my nationwide crashworthiness accident lawyers determine if my injury resulted from inadequately designed crashworthy features?

Not all attorneys have the skills to determine whether your serious injuries occurred because your vehicle was not crashworthy or whether this damage was unavoidable given the severity of the collision. Successfully holding a vehicle manufacturer accountable for injuries that arose out of the vehicle’s inadequate crashworthy features requires the application of scientific analysis. Our nationwide crashworthiness accident lawyers have proven that inadequate design resulted in cars that failed to protect their occupants from severe injury through hard work that includes re-designing and testing vehicles and their safety features.

When should I contact a crashworthiness accident lawyer?

It’s worth speaking to Anapol Weiss’s crashworthiness attorneys nationwide in any situation in which you have reason to suspect that more could have been done through vehicle safety design to reduce the severity of your injuries. You don’t have to have evidence that this is the case to benefit from a consultation with an attorney. If you believe the injuries that you or your loved one suffered were out of proportion to the severity of the crash or that they suggest any type of failure of safety features, discussing your situation with our experienced attorneys during a free consultation can provide peace of mind and insights on potential legal actions available to you. The sooner you involve a crashworthiness attorney in your claim, the better. Investigating and proving these claims through scientific analysis, the use of cutting-edge technology, and re-designing and testing vehicles and their safety features takes considerable time. Contacting us as soon as possible allows us to get started promptly and ensures necessary evidence, like the vehicle itself, is available for investigation.

Nationwide Crashworthiness Accident Lawyers

Crashworthiness Attorneys Nationwide Holding Vehicle Manufacturers Accountable for Severe Injuries Due to Inadequately Designed Safety Features
Principles of Crashworthiness
Manufacturers’ Legal Duty to Design Crashworthy Cars
How Anapol Weiss Can Help
Why Choose Anapol Weiss?
Contact the Nationwide Crashworthiness Accident Lawyers at Anapol Weiss Today for a Free Case Review

Crashworthiness Attorneys Nationwide Holding Vehicle Manufacturers Accountable for Severe Injuries Due to Inadequately Designed Safety Features

In a motor vehicle accident, the design and features of a vehicle can either protect occupants and minimize the harm they sustain or fail to provide adequate protection, allowing for more extensive injuries. The degree to which a vehicle’s design minimizes the risk of serious injury in the event of collisions—or fails to do so—is referred to as crashworthiness. With the guidance of knowledgeable nationwide crashworthiness accident lawyers, auto accident victims and their families can hold vehicle manufacturers accountable for their role in contributing to serious or catastrophic injuries.

Anapol Weiss Shareholder Larry E. Coben is a leading authority on crashworthiness, having written a textbook about crashworthiness cases that trial lawyers nationwide rely on when representing clients in cases involving flawed vehicle design. Larry handles crashworthiness claims all over the country, securing significant settlements and jury awards.

As experienced crashworthiness attorneys nationwide, our team is equipped with the skills to determine whether inadequately designed safety features bear some fault for the severity of your accident-related injuries. We represent clients at no upfront cost, ensuring that you can explore your options for holding vehicle manufacturers accountable. Contact us today to schedule a free consultation.

Principles of Crashworthiness

The principles of crashworthiness involve the design of different features of the car. Among the aspects of vehicle design that our nationwide crashworthiness accident lawyers pay close attention to are fuel systems, structural design and escapability, and airbags and other safety devices.

Fuel Systems

When a collision damages a vehicle’s fuel system, it can result in catastrophic burn injuries. To address this concern and make gasoline-powered vehicles more crashworthy, manufacturers need to focus on fuel tank location and tank construction.

At one time, manufacturers routinely used metal fuel tanks located near the rear of the vehicle to hold gasoline. However, decades of collisions that involved fuel-fed fires have resulted in a shift in the location of and the materials used in these critical vehicle components over the last 40 years. Today, the automotive industry uses metal or composite materials, like polycarbonate, to mold the fuel tank that stores gasoline. Manufacturers now design fuel systems with the tank placed forward of the rear axle and inside the metal side rails to protect it. By incorporating into the fuel system design filler pipes and tubes that will flex, bend, or break away at the filler opening while staying sealed in the event of a collision, manufacturers can prevent crashes from causing openings in the pipes that would otherwise allow fuel vapors to escape, potentially leading to a fire or explosion.

Structural Design and Vehicle Escapability

Some collisions can leave occupants trapped in the damaged vehicle. When injured, time is of the essence, and being unable to exit the vehicle promptly can prevent the crash victim from getting help. If a fire does occur, whether due to inadequate safety features or the severity and location of the impact, poor escapability can put the victim in immediate danger.

Lack of escapability is a problem particularly when the damage that results from the crash causes the doors to jam. This most often occurs as a result of frontal collisions. One way vehicle manufacturers can make cars more crashworthy and allow for better escapability is through smart structural designs that can minimize damage to vehicle doors, preventing them from jamming. Strong structural design and the smart use of sturdy materials, such as high-strength steel, can also help prevent vehicle roofs from collapsing when rollover accidents occur.

Airbags, Seat Belts, and Safety Systems

The use of airbags, seat belts, and other safety features can protect vehicle occupants in a variety of different types of collisions. For vehicles to be deemed crashworthy today, they should include features like frontal airbags, airbags between front passengers, and rollover curtain airbags, as well as having lap and shoulder belts in both the front seats and the back seats.

Other important safety features that can make a vehicle crashworthy include ABS brake systems, collision avoidance systems, and automatic collision mitigation systems.

Manufacturers’ Legal Duty to Design Crashworthy Cars

While individual collisions are preventable when motorists avoid engaging in negligent conduct, the occurrence of traffic accidents is a reality the automobile industry must contend with. Manufacturers of cars, motorcycles, pick-up trucks, vans, SUVs, and over-the-road trucks must design and build these vehicles in ways that minimize the risk of a collision causing serious injuries.

A severe injury in an auto accident doesn’t automatically mean that a vehicle was not crashworthy or that its manufacturer bears liability for the injury. Some crashes are so severe that even the most state-of-the-art safety features currently on the market would not be enough to avoid a serious injury. However, there’s a lot manufacturers can do to make vehicles crashworthy and ensure occupants are as well-protected as possible.

Auto manufacturers’ duties to design crashworthy vehicles extend to developing and building safety features that satisfy the following requirements:

Minimizing the likelihood of serious injury in all types of crashes, from frontal collisions to rear-end impacts, side impacts, and vehicle rollovers
Providing protection at various impact speeds
Protecting against damage to or disruption of the vehicle’s fuel system, including the fuel tank, to reduce the risk of burns and explosions
Protecting against the most common types of auto accident injuries, including injuries to the head and brain, the neck, the spine, the chest, the legs, and the internal organs
Providing protection whether or not the vehicle occupant is wearing a seatbelt

Auto manufacturers’ failures to make vehicles crashworthy can exacerbate the injuries that result from an accident. When that occurs, these companies can be held liable through the civil legal system.

How Anapol Weiss Can Help

You have reason to believe the injuries you suffered wouldn’t have been as severe if your vehicle’s crashworthiness was adequate. How do you move forward?

At Anapol Weiss, our nationwide crashworthiness accident lawyers are here to analyze your circumstances, advise you of your options for moving forward, and begin your case with a thorough investigation. If we determine that there are grounds for a claim against the vehicle manufacturer, we handle all aspects of the legal process and fight to secure the maximum compensation available through settlement negotiations or trial verdicts.

Why Choose Anapol Weiss?

If you suspect that more could have been done to make your car safer, it may be worth exploring any potential crashworthiness claims you could pursue. Anapol Weiss’s team of leading crashworthiness attorneys nationwide is devoted to helping car accident victims hold vehicle manufacturers accountable.

Legal Leadership in the Area of Crashworthiness

Larry Coben is a legal leader whose work has shaped the landscape of crashworthiness liability claims. He has been the first attorney in the nation to file lawsuits and secure significant results for clients in many areas of vehicle crashworthiness, such as:

Failing to install lap and shoulder belts in vehicle back seats
Failing to install frontal airbags
Failing to install airbags to deploy between front passengers
Failing to install rollover curtain airbags
Failing to install laminated glass in car door windows
Failing to place fuel tanks in protected portions of the vehicle to prevent ruptures that can lead to fuel-fed fires
Failing to use high-strength steel to avoid dangerous roof collapses in rollover accidents
Failing to install automatic collision mitigation systems to reduce the likelihood of rear-end crashes
Failing to install ABS brake systems in motorcycles to reduce the risk of collisions due to brakes locking up
Failing to include collision avoidance systems that can reduce the risk of collisions as standard equipment in truck design and manufacture

A prolific writer who has published more than 400 articles in legal journals and newspapers, Larry literally wrote the book on crashworthiness cases.

A Long History of Winning Cases Against Vehicle Manufacturers

Anapol Weiss has been devoted to helping the injured for more than 45 years. Larry Coben personally has spent more than 40 years representing consumers against the companies behind unsafe products, including but not limited to vehicle manufacturers.

Larry’s numerous successful recoveries for vehicle crashworthiness cases include a recent $20.7 million verdict against Honda Motor Company for a faulty motorcycle gas cap design with fellow Anapol Weiss Shareholder Kila Baldwin, as well as multi-million dollar settlements against truck manufacturers for failing to install collision avoidance systems as standard equipment.

Professional Resources and Cutting-Edge Technology

Determining whether inadequate vehicle crashworthiness contributed to your injuries requires a thorough investigation and scientific analysis. This isn’t a challenge you can handle on your own or one you should entrust to an inexperienced attorney or a law firm with minimal resources. You need the full advantages of our nationally recognized firm’s professional resources, including our access to cutting-edge technology and network of reputable expert witnesses.

Contact the Nationwide Crashworthiness Accident Lawyers at Anapol Weiss Today for a Free Case Review

If a vehicle manufacturer’s negligent design of safety systems caused you to suffer serious but preventable injuries, our legal representation could mean the difference between facing these burdens on your own and recovering the full compensation you need to move forward.

For help from seasoned crashworthiness attorneys nationwide, contact Anapol Weiss online or call 215-608-9645 today.

Nationwide Crashworthiness Lawyers