SUV Rollover Accidents. Compared to standard passenger automobiles, sport utility vehicles present a high risk of rollover accidents. The increase in SUV sales and their high popularity has not come without a price. Unaware of the dangers, US motorists regularly travel on highways in SUVs at speeds normal for a passenger car. Unfortunately the SUV was originally designed as an off-road vehicle and not for high speed highway travel, as a result thousands of people are killed or seriously injured in sport utility vehicles each year. These vehicles, designed to avoid rocks and manage rough terrain feature a high center of gravity and a narrow wheelbase, which at highway speeds spell disaster. The higher center of gravity makes them top heavy and taking corrective action or sudden movement causes a rollover position. Indeed, rollovers accidents are responsible for about 51% of all deaths in standard sport utility vehicles, about 36% of deaths trucks, and 19% of deaths in standard cars. Simple maneuvers such as changing lanes or passing at high speed can result in a loss of control, flipping the vehicle which is why most rollover accidents often involve only one vehicle. The high numbers killed are largely a result of the occupants being ejected, others are crushed. Tire blowouts are catastrophic as evidenced by the widely publicized firestone recall.

Many accidents involve driver error, and unfamiliarity with SUV performance and capabilities. America's highways are filled with Sport utility vehicles traveling in the high speed lane, the drivers unaware that any speed over 65mph presents dramatically greater risks of loss of control and rollovers.

However consumer groups and lawyers are increasingly placing fault at Ford Motors. It is difficulty to ignore the mounting death toll from the Ford Explorer and other SUVs. The Ford Explorer has a higher rate of rollover accidents than other sport utility vehicle. The Explorer is 13 percent more likely to roll than other compact SUVs and 53 percent more likely than other SUVs to roll over when there is another equipment failure such as faulty brakes or a tire blowouts.

Many of these vehicles lack roll protection adding the fatalities. Manufacturers adapting SUVs to family car driving did not include roll bars. However, since the body of an SUV is the same as it would be if used for off-roading, the lack of roll bars along with the high clearance and high center of gravity make rollover accidents more deadly.

Lawyers and consumer groups argue that the industry is being irresponsible by advertising and promoting SUVs as safe, family cars. Sales of these vehicles are soaring but with many people who do not intend to drive off-road.

SUV rollover accidents seriously injury or kill about 10,000 people in the United States in each year, more than side and rear crashes combined.

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