Victim of Uncrashworthy Pickup Compensated by GM

Rollover attorney Rob Ammons successfully secured compensation for a 27-year-old Texas man who was seriously injured when the 2007 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 he was driving proved wholly uncrashworthy in a foreseeable rollover.

The crash occurred when the man suddenly encountered wet/icy road conditions, causing a loss of directional control over the pickup.  In the lawsuit he filed on the man’s behalf, Rob Ammons claimed the Silverado’s roof and seat belt restraint system were defective and failed to perform adequately in the crash.  Additionally, GM failed to equip the pickup with a side curtain airbag that would have provided much-needed restraint and injury prevention benefits.

The driver was injured when the pickup’s roof collapsed and the seat belts allowed his body to move away from the seat and into the intruding roof structure rather than coupling him to his seat as the vehicle rolled.  The scene photo above shows that the driver’s survival space within the Silverado was drastically compromised by the degree of crush sustained by the weak roof structure.  An expert in kinematics concluded that it was the impact between the man’s head and the collapsing roof structure as well as compression and lateral bending of the man’s neck as his body was allowed to move away from the seat that caused the most serious and life-changing injuries:  skull fracture with brain trauma and spinal fracture.  Over $350,000 in medical charges were incurred to treat these injuries in the past with future treatment being predicted to add another $1.2 Million in expenses during the man’s lifetime.

The Ammons Law Firm has a nationwide personal injury practice focusing on tire defects, truck accidents, rollovers, consumer protection and product liability, catastrophic injury, wrongful death, post-collision fires, seat belt defects, airbag defects, and plant explosions.