Vehicle Safety News

ABC News, "Rollovers Account for 33 Percent of all Auto Related Deaths"

Rollovers account for 3 percent of all auto accidents but nearly 33 percent of all auto-related deaths. General Motors Corp. is trying to do something about that startling statistic. The company is building a new state-of-the-art crash testing center at its Michigan headquarters.

GM safety engineers decided to build the facility to study all the dynamics of a rollover accident and to learn ways to make passengers safer. The test cars must be propelled to 60 mph to achieve at least one rollover. Rollover accidents account for more than 10,000 deaths a year in the United States. A police dashboard video captured Emily Bowness, 29, on her way to a Michigan rock concert six months ago. She was sideswiped, and her SUV rolled over 12 times. "After seeing the accident, I can't believe I survived. I tried to correct, and I guess I overcorrected," she said. Bowness survived because she wasn't thrown from her car. GM calls it "passenger containment," and that's what engineers at the facility are studying.