Nye County, Nevada – An accident occurred in Nye County, Nevada, resulting in the loss of a woman’s life in a single-vehicle rollover crash. The Nevada Highway Patrol (NHP) has provided preliminary details regarding this incident.
Just before 10 p.m., NHP troopers responded to the scene of a single-vehicle crash on State Route 375 (SR375) near mile marker 31 in Nye County near the town of Rachel.
The preliminary investigation reveals that a green Mazda pickup truck was traveling eastbound on SR-375 when the driver inadvertently allowed the vehicle to veer into the westbound travel lane. In an attempt to correct the course, the driver caused the vehicle to overturn.
The passenger in the vehicle, identified as 23-year-old Priya Srikumar of Ithaca, New York, was pronounced deceased at the scene.
The pickup truck driver emerged from the crash without sustaining any injuries.
The Roof of the Truck May Have Caved In Because of Defect in its Design
This is a terrible accident that may have been caused by driver error, but the death of the young woman may very well have been caused by a poorly designed vehicle.
Auto manufacturers have known for decades that light trucks and SUVs are more prone to rollover accidents than sedans and other passenger vehicles. Many prudent manufacturers took steps to reduce the likelihood of injury in these foreseeable accidents by designing roofs with reinforced steel, among other precautions. These manufacturers put safety over profits. Lives were saved.
Other manufacturers chose to ignore sound manufacturing principles and design away the risks associated with foreseeable rollover accidents. These manufacturers made a choice to design and produce trucks and SUVs with roofs wholly inadequate to support the weight of the vehicle during a rollover accident.
This is known as roof crush.
Roof crush has resulted in hundreds of properly restrained occupants of lightweight pickups and SUVs being seriously injured and killed.
While not stated in the reports, photos of the crashed Mazda truck indicate that the truck’s roof crushed into the survival space of the occupants during the rollover. Trained professionals will need to inspect the truck further to determine if the roof could have been designed to prevent roof crush and whether the roof crushing into the survival space was the ultimate cause of the injuries suffered. If these two facts prove true, Mazda should be held responsible for the injuries and death suffered in this crash.
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The Ammons Law Firm represents clients nationwide in truck accident cases, with extensive experience in dealing with commercial truck accidents.
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.
