Loon Lake, Washington — A woman lost her life in a rollover crash on Friday morning near Loon Lake.
Melissa Johnson was driving south when she lost control of her 1999 Ford F-350. The vehicle skidded off the road, struck an embankment, and ultimately rolled over, coming to rest on its top.
Ms. Johnson died at the scene.
Two passengers, Richard Hall and Jessie Sylvanie, sustained injuries and were transported to the hospital.
No further information is currently available.
Certain model trucks have defects that increase the chance of death and injury in rollover crashes.
The reason rollover accidents are one of the most dangerous of all vehicle crashes is that some vehicles do not protect people as they should.
When designing a vehicle, manufacturers have a duty to produce a vehicle that can protect a person in a rollover crash. This is the very purpose of seatbelts, airbags, and strong roofs. However, when airbags do not work, when seatbelts break, or when a roof crushes the people inside the car, the vehicle fails to do its job, and people suffer preventable injuries. This is unacceptable, and under the law, these vehicles are considered defective.
In older model trucks, we see two defects time and again. The first deals with roof-crushing the occupants of the vehicle. This happens when a manufacturer chooses to build a truck with a roof that cannot support the weight of the vehicle. The second is seatbelts breaking or failing to restrain, causing people to be ejected from the vehicle. Both of these defects are very dangerous and have led to countless injuries and deaths over the past twenty years.
There is not enough information provided in this crash to determine if the Ford truck suffered from either of these defects and if those defects were the cause of the injuries suffered. Trained professionals will need to inspect the vehicle to determine exactly what happened and if the injuries would have been suffered regardless of the truck’s roof or seatbelts. May all questions be answered and those affected here receive the help they deserve.
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The Ammons Law Firm represents clients nationwide in catastrophic injury and wrongful death litigation, with extensive experience in complex auto/tire defect and commercial vehicle cases.
Disclaimer: This post is not legal advice. Information contained in this blog was compiled from third-party sources or is the opinion of the author. Please inform us immediately if false or misleading information is contained in this post.
