Chevrolet Silverado Pickup Truck Rollover Accidents
In 2005, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety issued a report finding that the Chevy Silverado 1500 made between 1999 and 2002 had the highest driver death rate of any of the large two-wheel drive pickups that were part of the study.
Pickup Truck Rollover Accident and Crashes
A rollover crash can happen in any type of vehicle. Pickup trucks and SUVs, however, are not as safe as many consumers believe because they ride higher from the ground than passenger cars. This makes pickups and SUVs more likely to roll over in a crash.
When rollover accidents occur, they are often fatal. In 2002, sixty-one percent of all occupant fatalities in sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and 45 percent of pickup truck deaths were the result of a rollover crash. By comparison, only 22 percent of passenger car fatalities in 2002 were the result of a rollover crash.
Injury to Truck Rollover Occupants
Pickup truck rollovers are also more likely to cause occupant partial or full ejection resulting in severe head injuries and neck and spinal cord injuries including paralysis. Individuals in a truck roll over have a significantly lower survival rate, possibly due in part to minimal amount to structure (the roof & roof pillars) available to withstand the violent nature of a rollover. Severe roof crush accidents with trucks are usually deadly. The roof pillars of a truck are not designed to prevent massive roof crushing. When a pickup truck rolls over, the roof pillars often collapse and crush and the roof pillar separate from the door jamb allowing extra space resulting in door latch openings and door lock failures. Roof crush and an ejection from a truck during a rollover often results in death, traumatic brain injury (TBI), paraplegia, quadriplegia, severed spinal cord injuries, suffocation and death. The roof crush injuries in a pickup truck rollover can also be a death sentence for even for belted and short & tall passengers. Because pickup trucks, SUVs and passenger vans are not classified as "passenger vehicles" they are not required to meet all of the federal motor vehicle safety standards for crash worthiness imposed on cars and station wagons, even though they are advertised, marketed and sold to drivers to haul passengers on a daily basis.
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http://www.khou.com/images/0805/InsuranceInstituteforHighwaySafetyStudy_080505.pdf
