Car owners with sunroofs need to be aware of this danger.
There have been injuries, even deaths, in accidents involving sunroofs.
"I never thought I would be thrown out of the car.""It was him," Liza Hankins, an American, recounted in a poignant interview withNYTimes. "The accident left me in a wheelchair. My face looks terrible."
One day in 2005 on my way to work in Yazoo City,Mississippi,Hankins had an accident on the boat.She was driving a 2000 Ford Expedition. The vehicle rolled several times and she was thrown from the vehicle through the closed sunroof.
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Liza Hankins was left in a wheelchair after an accident in 2005. |
After the accident, Hankins's family and lawyer filed a lawsuit against Ford, claiming that the company had failed to live up to its promises to ensure passenger safety. Ford claimed that Hankins was not wearing a seat belt, but she denied this.
The lawsuit was filed, and Ford won. The company argued that no government law required a sunroof, even when closed, to keep passengers inside the vehicle in the event of an accident. The family of the then-18-year-old girl accepted, but more importantly, the case prompted a number of safety agencies and consumer groups to speak out.
Recent field testing ofThe National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has shown that lawmakers are considering and may introduce safety regulations for sunroofs. This makes car manufacturers or spare parts companies more concerned about safety factors, sunroofs must not simply be a function of beauty and entertainment on cars.
"We know that there are accidents and risks.o," Cathy Chase, president of the group that promotes safety standards for Americans on the road (AHAS), said. "But it's a solvable problem."
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Sunroof is one of the favorite car equipment of consumers. |
In the 2011 statistics published by NHTSA regarding tAn accident that threw passengers out of a sunroof that was closed or not., there were about 300 deaths and 1,400 injuries per year, calculated in the period 1997-2008. While the 2016 report, statistics from 2002-2012, about 230 deaths and casualties per year were500 people.
"Lawmakers should update the data and take a deeper look at sunroof safety standards," said Jason Levine, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety (CAS).Cathy Chase believes that ever-increasing sunroofs could be contributing to the rising death toll.
In fact, sunroofs are one of the most popular features among consumers and are often optional. Customers pay more for them but are less concerned about safety issues. In addition, car manufacturers are increasing the number of cars equipped with sunroofs, and even the size.
According toWardsAutoAbout 7 million (40%) of 2017 model year cars and light trucks sold in the U.S. were equipped with sunroofs. Compared to 2011 model year vehicles, the number of products with sunroofs increased 33%.
Regarding the type of glass used for sunroof equipment, car manufacturers today mainly use tempered glass instead of laminated glass because the cost is lower even though the impact resistance is not as high."Seat belts are the most important factor in limiting the situation of being thrown out of the car through the sunroof. But in some particularly serious accidents, they cannot keep passengers inside the car," said Stephen Batzer, a technical and legal consultant in Michigan.
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A sunroof airbag is being developed by a parts supplier. |
Before laws tightened safety regulations on sunroofs,In fact, a solution has been proposed to protect car occupants. Hyundai Mobis, a supplier of parts for Hyundai and Kia, said it will soon provide the first sunroof airbags on cars.
Airbags ofHyundai Mobis has the ability to protect vehicle occupants when the sunroof is open or closed.The new sunroof-mounted airbag could hit the market in the next year or two, said company spokesman Choon Kee Hwang.
