Ford F-150 Rollovers

Poorly designed roofs, unsafe door latches, and an abnormally high rate of ejections in rollovers, has plagued the Ford F-150.

Ford Motor Co. has settled many lawsuits in regards to the strength of the roof of its F-Series SuperCab pickup.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, IIHS, gave the Ford F-150 its lowest rating in crash testing. In the IIHS crash tests, a barrier is set up to the left of the hood. This is called an offset test. An offset test is used to determine a vehicle's structural strength.

Brian O’Neil, President of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, said “the F-150 exhibited major collapse of the occupant compartment in the offset test.” This results in a collapse and the test dummy’s movement was not well controlled.

The test's results showed serious injury to the head and neck of the test dummy. The airbag also deployed late, which increased the amount of damage to the dummy.

"This is as bad as it gets in terms of crash performance," O'Neill commented. When asked what he (Mr. O’Neil) would do if he owned a Ford F-150 O'Neill replied, "I'd get rid of it, I wouldn't put my family, in a vehicle like this."

Although the Ford F-150 was designed for driving off-road, the truck is not prepared to do so. The lack of a roll bar, cage and proper roof support poses potential roof crush harm to passengers in the case of a rollover.

Even worse yet, the four door F-150 does not have a B-pillar between the doors on each side of the truck. In a rollover, roof crush can then put extra pressure on the area between the A-pillars and C-Pillars, causing the door latches to malfunction. This could easily result in driver passenger ejection. In vehicle rollovers, passenger ejection is the #1 cause of death.

As part of its defense in a lawsuit, Ford Motor Co. hired an outside firm to do a 45 mph dolly rollover test on a F-150 Supercab. The truck suffered severe damage to the roof. The test showed the doors flying open and dummies being partially ejected. The plaintiff's lawyers used Ford's own tests to convince a jury that the crushed roof helped cause the fatal ejection of the truck's passengers. The jury awarded their survivors $225 million.

A total of 134 people were fatally ejected from F-Series SuperCabs from 1998 to 2001, according to a Ford internal document introduced at a trial.

The leading cause of death in SUV accidents is rollovers. Because of the speed involved in the accidents, untested environments, such as uneven or slick surfaces and the actual design of the vehicles themselves, crash and rollover tests do not meet real world circumstances. The current standards are simply not enough to replicate what happens on the highways that we drive on.

Faulty design is a leading contributor to rollover accidents, some even single car accidents. Here's a list of some safety issues that are common with SUVs, trucks and vans:

Weak roof structure - does not prevent roof crush - allows driver/passenger ejection
High center of gravity
Faulty Seat Belts
Seat back failures
Narrow wheelbase
Top heavy design with high center of gravity
Weak window glass that allows driver/passenger ejection

Ford hasn't done enough to prevent Ford F-150 rollovers. If you or a loved one have suffered a serious injury or death due to a rollover, contact us using the link below.