If you were driving along the Indiana Toll Road over the Fourth of July weekend this year, then you may well have felt the impact of a rollover accident between Cline Avenue and Calumet. The local CBS station described it as a traffic jam on “one of the busiest road travel days of the year,” and as they pointed out, things only got worse when another accident on the eastbound lanes near Lake Station blocked traffic on the other side of the Toll Road as well. Traffic did not move for hours; cars were backed up for miles.
Rollover accidents are often the cause of serious bodily injuries for those involved in the crash. Rollovers are notorious for being deadly, as well: many rollover victims do not survive the rollover accident.
For our earlier discussions on rollover dangers, read:
- What’s Causing These Deadly Rollover Accidents in Indiana and Illinois? Is It Roof Crush?
- Rollover Danger: What You Need to Know Driving Roads in Indiana and Illinois
- Indiana Rollover Car Crashes: The Rollover Danger to Hoosiers.
While car makers and tire manufacturers understand the high risk of rollover crashes and the reasons why vehicle design or failing tires can cause a fatal rollover accident, the reality for our part of the country is that rollover accidents happen with great regularity here.
Recent Rollovers in Passenger Vehicles
Consider the following examples of recent rollover accidents involving passenger vehicles (cars, sedans, minivans, pickup trucks, SUVs):
1. June 20, 2018: Pickup Truck Rollover in Wayne County
A tragic rollover accident happened last month on Interstate 70 in Wayne County, Indiana. A young mother was driving her pickup truck along the highway with her baby son riding in the back seat. When she tried to help the infant, reaching with her arm into the back seat, she lost control of the pickup.
The truck went into a rollover. The nine-month old baby was in a rear-facing car seat, but this did not protect him. He was ejected from the truck by the force of impact, and later died from the injuries he sustained in the rollover accident.
2. June 28, 2018: Sedan Rollover in Jackson County
A teen driver was driving his 2001 Chevy Cavalier north on Illinois Route 3, approaching Buttermilk Hill Road, when he lost control of his vehicle as he overcorrected and rolled over into the roadway drainage ditch.
This rollover crash happened around six o’clock in the evening, trapping both driver and passenger inside the sedan, while a 15-year-old occupant who was not wearing a safety belt was ejected from the car during impact.
3. June 29, 2018: Pickup Truck Flips in Perry County
Another rollover accident ended up with the vehicle upside-down when the driver of a Chevy Colorado reportedly overcorrected while driving on U.S. 51 at Gable Lane. The pickup truck went into a spin, slammed into a mailbox, and veered into a roadside ditch where the truck flipped over.
4. July 3, 2018: SUV Rollover in Chicago
The westbound lanes of the Indiana Toll Road were shut down from around 1:30 on the afternoon of July 3rd to 7:30 that evening after a serious rollover accident involving a Chevrolet Avalanche.
According to ABC 7- Chicago, a tire failed on a Chevy minivan as it was driving west, and as the minivan was maneuvering to the side of the road it was hit by the Chevy SUV. The impact of the collision forced the Avalanche into a rollover. It came to a stop upside-down, its roof on the ground (see a photo here).
5. July 5, 2018: Sedan Rollover in Indianapolis
Not many hours after the last of the Fourth of July fireworks had faded from the skies, a serious rollover accident happened in Indianapolis. It was a little before five o’clock on the morning of July 5, 2018, when the driver of a sedan flipped the vehicle into a rollover crash on I-70 at the north split. First responders were forced to cut open the car’s roof to get the accident victims out of the sedan (photo here).
6. July 5, 2018: SUV Rollover in Elburn
That same morning, at around two o’clock, the driver of a Chevrolet Trailblazer lost control of the SUV and entered into a rollover as she was driving westbound on Illinois Route 38, west of Illinois Route 47. Sadly, this driver also died as a result of injuries sustained in the rollover crash.
7. July 9, 2018: Ford Rollover in DuPage County
Just before sundown on a Sunday evening, the driver of a 2001 Ford sedan lost control of his automobile and according to news coverage, rolled several times before the Ford came to a stop astride a guardrail on Interstate 290. Sadly, the driver perished in this Illinois rollover accident.
Rollover Accidents Are Commonplace in Our Part of the Country
The following examples of rollover accidents all happened within the past few weeks, and all involve rollover crashes of passenger vehicles, the type that we and our loved ones drive every day here in Indiana and Illinois. This list is not complete, either. There were more rollover accidents in our part of the country than we have described here.
The danger of a serious or fatal rollover accident is very real for all of us, regardless of the time of day or the choice of passenger vehicle. If a vehicle rolls during a collision, then should its roof be strong enough to withstand the impact? If there is a rollover crash, should there be protections in place to block ejection from the vehicle?
Claims based upon rollover accidents may involve allegations of negligence as well as product design failures or defective products. All too often, a serious or fatal rollover accident will be found to be entirely preventable.
Rollovers happen much too often for those driving passenger vehicles. Let’s be careful out there!
