NISSAN PATHFINDER ROLLOVER 

Nissan Pathfinder was originally introduced in 1985, before sport utilities vehicles (SUVs) became popular. The original Nissan Pathfinder was a 2-door vehicle based on the 4-wheel-drive pickup. Changes in U.S. vehicle import laws spurred the evolution of the Nissan Pathfinder into a 4-door in 1990. In mid-1999 the Nissan Pathfinder assumed its present  body style below. The Nissan Pathfinder like most of the sports utilities vehicles have a high center of gravity and making these unstable vehicles prone to rolling over. Although designed  and advertised to be driven off the road  very few have off-road protection such as  rollbars. Further, few  SUVs meet the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration roof safety standards for automobiles. The  hazard occurs when taking emergency action after steering in one direction (evasive-defensive maneuvers) and then being forced to rapidly correct in the opposite direction ( also referred to as  over correction or over steering). The result can be a deadly rollover, especially in a SUV. Rollover occurs because of the absence of a lower center of gravity and a wider track width, which allows automobiles to skid, spin and recover. In a SUV, taking a common evasive maneuver that car drivers safety complete every day, rapidly corrective action can cause a SUV to trip and roll over.

In a SUV rollover, the roof can crush into the occupant space in several different ways. Matchboxing, pillar collapse and header collapse are the most common ways that this occurs. In most cases, a stronger roof support system would have prevented most of the serious neck, head and spinal injuries. To the untrained observer, roof pillars of most vehicles appear solid and sturdy, especially strong enough to withstand a roof crush in a rollover. The surprises come through when one looks at a cross-section of the pillar. Most are nothing more than folded/molded corrugated sheet metal, being hollow inside. Therefore, when impact occurs the metal folds over into the empty inner space allowing more folding or crushing to continue. Tests show that if the inner hollow part of the roof pillars are either filled with a high density foam or honey combed structure, then roof crush is at a minimal, thus saving lives!! In the Nissan Pathfinder rollover above, the roof pillars, roof supports and roof pillars failed to withstand the weight of the vehicle. When the roof invades the occupant space, the occupants will usually sustain neck, shoulder and head injuries from the Pathfinder's roof collapse and failure. For more information about (Rollovers / Roof Crush)

When the roof collapses or invades the safety zone, then the neck fractures often occur. These result from shear and flexion forces unto the neck and spinal cord of the occupants. Roof crush injuries are caused by the energy of the vehicle in a roll creating compressive forces pushing down on the top of skull when the head is in an upright position. The compression  can causes a bursting fracture in the C5 to C7 area of the cervical spine. This bursting fracture causes a loss of intravertebral space both anterior and posterior often resulting in paralysis.

In other rollovers, the roof intruding are not the cause of injury.  Another type of serious neck and head injury occurs when the occupant "dives" into the roof, resulting in the head flexing forward before receiving an impact to the top of the head. This causes the bone in cervical vertebrae to fracture, (NOT A BURSTING FRACTURE). The posterior corner of the vertebrae then impinges directly against the spinal cord resulting in loss of anterior vertebrae body height. Diving type injuries can happen to belted occupants, who for many

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