rollover

Vehicle roof crush standards have not been significantly revised since 1971. The current requirements say one side of a vehicle's roof must support at least 1.5 times the total vehicle weight. However, the strength requirements reach a maximum at 5,000 lbs, whether or not the calculated standard is ...

FoMoCo is on the brink of settling a class-action lawsuit brought by owners claiming that Ford's Explorer was prone to rolling over. The settlement covers approximately one million people in California, Connecticut, Illinois and Texas who've owned 1991 through 2001 Explorers.Ford's spokesperson, ...

Nicole Nason, head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), maintains that the crash standards that have been on the books since 1973 are due for a revision. Recognizing the 9 out of 10 vehicles routinely score either four- or five-stars on the administration's tests, she's ...

New safety ratings issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for 2007 model year SUVs reveal the former deathtraps are now much less likely to suffer from a rollover at high speed. Rollovers account for 10,000 deaths in the U.S. every year, which is 30% of all vehicle related ...

Do a search for "roof regulations" on Autoblog and the No. 1 result will be a post written back on August 19, 2005. That's how long it's been since the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposed the latest increase to the 35-year-old federal requirements that govern the strength of a ...

In 2002, Benetta Buell-Wilson was driving her 1997 Ford Explorer in Southern California when she swerved to avoid debris on the freeway. The high center of gravity of the SUV and the quick steering input caused the Explorer to roll four-and-a-half times, eventually coming to rest on its roof. The ...

Embattled NASCAR star Michael Waltrip has some new problems on his plate. According to Yahoo Sports, he has been charged with reckless driving and failing to report an accident. The charges resulted from an incident over the weekend where Waltrip's Toyota Land Cruiser hit a telephone pole and ...

The NHTSA revealed the final rules on the mandatory installation of electronic stability control (ESC) to help prevent rollovers on all vehicles by the 2012 model year (September 2011). The legislation applies to all vehicles under 10,000 pounds, and was ushered in without dissent by automakers. ...

There's still fallout landing from the Firestone-tire-crashing-Explorer episode. Maryland-based Quality Control Systems Corporation has sued NHTSA in an attempt to gain access to any reports Ford made to the agency regarding injuries and deaths from tire-related incidents. This latest action, under ...

YouTube serves up another cool video. Corvairs are hella cool, and they were tarred and feathered out of existence by zealots. They were no worse than other cars on the road at the time, but they were picked up as all that was wrong with motoring safety by Ralph Nader. Cars in in the late '50s when ...

Getting a five-star crash test rating will get a whole lot tougher with a new proposal from the Bush Administration that would put into effect a requirement for side-impact testing.Grade inflation is one of the reasons behind the change, and with 87% of all vehicles earning a four- or five-star ...

When a vehicle rolls over, one of the critical components in assuring the safety of its occupants is the roof structure and its ability to protect, not injure its occupants. On the heels of nearly $250-million dollars in judgments relating to injuries caused in rollover accidents, Ford Motor ...

Although rollovers only make up three percent of crashes in the US, they account for over a quarter of all traffic fatalities. General Motors is in the process of investing over $10 million to study the effects of rollover crashes and while doing so, has made a pledge to outfit all their vehicles ...

The National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recently completed testing of Audi's newest 'ute and awarded the Q7 five-stars, the highest rating possible, for both front and side crashes. The tests also gave the Q7 a four-star rating for rollover avoidance.Once again, standard ...

Monday's rumor became reality Thursday when the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released its proposal to require auto manufacturers to install electronic stability control as a standard feature in all new cars.Standard equipment ESC would be required on passenger vehicles under ...

Ford Motor Company has announced that it will make electronic stability control a standard feature on all of its models by the end of 2009. Although SUVs and rollovers have taken the brunt of the criticism, other traction-related crashes have piqued the interest of federal regulators. As we ...

Neither automakers or safety advocates, two groups that usually find little common ground, are in favor of new federal roof strength standards proposed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Adminstration that would require a vehicle's roof to withstand 2.5 times the vehicle's weight. The NHTSA ...

With recent fatal accidents reported for '90s-era Ford Explorers fitted with Firestone radials, Firestone has renewed efforts to get the problem-plagued tires off the road.In 2000 and 2001, Firestone recalled about 6.5 million of its Radial ATX and Wilderness AT tires after separating tires led to ...

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety claims that making electronic stability control (ESC) a standard feature in the US could reduce auto deaths by up to one-third, which would result in a whopping 11,000 fewer fatalities per year. The institute's numbers show that otherwise identical ...

A tragedy on Toronto streets that claimed the lives of a pair of enthusiasts has once again set alight political fires alight by those looking to ban performance modifications to automobiles. Whether the deaths are attributable to street racing remains up for debate, but the event has triggered ...