Even Minor Front End Collision Accidents Can Be Serious

Hello, this is Todd Tracy with the Tracy law firm in Dallas, Texas, here with another Todd Talk. Today I want to talk with you about the importance of safety standards. The vehicle manufacturers, when they test vehicles, they test to certain standards that protect the brain, the heart, the chest, and the femurs. However, there are no protections for the lower legs, and because there are no performance requirements required by the federal government, many times, in frontal impacts, the car industry does not care what happens.
This is a prime example. I want you to look at this vehicle. This vehicle has performed perfectly. Look at the crush, how the vehicle has stopped at the crush at the firewall. In fact, the vehicle did so well, look at how the door held its shape, the glass is still intact, the rear windows are still intact. But that’s only part of the story. When you open the car door up and you look inside, then the true story comes out. I want you to look at where your lower legs are. There is no survival space left for your lower legs. Why is that? Well, remember, there are no safety standards for anything for what’s called your tibias or your fibulas or your ankles.
The federal government tells us that the second most debilitating injury in the world today are injuries to the lower legs. In this particular accident, the driver was at fault for the accident, but you know what, I’ve always had a firm belief that it doesn’t matter who is at fault for causing the accident. I want to know who caused the injury. And the driver of this vehicle had no head injuries, had no heart or chest injuries, had no femur injuries. Why is that? Because the safety systems that the manufacturer was required to meet performed perfectly. His only injury is a massively mangled left leg. Why did his left leg get destroyed? Because he lost the survival space for his floor pan, footwell, and toe board area.
Now, why is that important? Well, there are certain accidents where that area of the vehicle is compromised. And that’s why it’s incumbent upon the manufacturers to test for all foreseeable impacts. I want you to think about this: what do people do right before they have an accident? They swerve to the left or they swerve to the right and when they do that, these vehicles don’t come together head to head. They come together corner to corner in what is known as a partial frontal offset.
When the car industry started testing its vehicles in partial frontal offsets, guess what happened. The anthropomorphic test dummies, their lower legs were getting destroyed. What did the car manufacturers do about it? Nothing. Why? There was no standards. So what have they done? They have passed on a known defect, a known hazard, to the consumer. Why? Because they’re not required by law to do anything about it. And I don’t know about you, but that’s unacceptable in my world, especially when the vehicles that we buy are the second most valuable investment we will ever make, behind our home.
When the car industry cares more about passing a standard than they care about taking care of you, people get maimed, and at my law firm, that’s unacceptable. If you or a family member have suffered a lower leg injury because your survival space was destroyed, please call my law firm. Thank you.