Faulty Design, Crashworthiness, and Liability

The safest place in a wreck is the occupant compartment. The occupant compartment is the area inside the automobile where the passenger seats are located plus contiguous storage areas. It does not include the trunk. The occupant compartment is made up of a variety of components—from the vehicle frame to the seats and seatbelts, and from the windows to the airbags—that should work in unison as individual elements of a system that maintain the integrity of the space, keep the occupant safe during the wreck, and allow the occupants to exit the automobile after a wreck. 

Arguably, the most overlooked category of automotive products liability defects is vehicle frame structural integrity defects or crashworthiness defects. The major components of the vehicle frame structure are the frame rails, body pillars, sill, cross members, body panels, and door beams. While the vehicle frame may technically be outside of and form the external boundary of the occupant compartment, when a vehicle frame structure fails, the consequences present themselves inside the occupant compartment. Defects in vehicle frame structures are typically caused by metal with insufficient tensile strength, thin metal, metal components with cutouts, metal components without foam, bad welds, and or the absence of a metal component.

There are three broad categories of wrecks: frontal and rear impacts, side impacts, and rollovers or roof impacts. In all three types of wrecks, the vehicle frame structure should maintain the occupant compartment’s integrity thereby creating a survival space for the occupants. In frontal and rear crashes, this is accomplished by crush zones deforming and absorbing energy.  Crush zones are the front of the automobile to the front axle and the rear of the automobile to the rear axle that are designed to crumple and absorb energy in a front or rear impacts, respectively. In side impacts, the occupant survival space is maintained by the rigidity of pillars, sills, and door beams, the integrity of door latches, and the deformation of and absorption of energy by panels. In rollovers, the pillars and roof should not crush or deform. Additionally, in all three types of wrecks, vehicle frame structure integrity is essential for the other components within the occupant compartment, such as seats, seatbelts, and airbags to function properly.

While it may seem counterintuitive, excess deformation in the crush zones is not necessarily indicative of a defect. Instead, the hallmark is intrusion into the occupant compartment, breaches of the occupant compartment, or a lack of deformation in the crush zone—that is, a lack of absorption of energy, which could translate into failures of other components in the occupant compartment—for example, seat back failures—or outside the occupant compartment—for example, fuel filler neck failures that can lead to vehicular fires.

In a side impact, we generally focus on the automobile’s lateral area left and right of center between the front and rear wheels. This usually translates to the lateral areas of the automobile where there are seats and doors. A side impact crush is the “Goldie Locks” of crush. Too much is like too little. Too little, and components inside the occupant compartment can fail—for example, the bolts that anchor a seat to the floorboard. Too much, and the survival space in the occupant compartment is compromised or eliminated. Another consideration, especially in side impacts, are door and door latch integrity. If a door opens in any impact, sirens should go off that there is a potential defect, especially when there is an ejection.