Ford Escape Roof Defect

A roof crush, roof header, & supports or roof pillar collapse can kill or severely maim or even kill a belted driver or passenger. Instead of being there to protect you and create a safety zone, the roof crushing down onto you can be a real killer. Ford Escape like most SUV’s is somewhat unstable and can rollover due to it’s small track width and narrow wheel base. When a rollover happens, roof crushes usually follow. Roof crush is a result of an energy assault or over compression of the roof supports. This is caused when the vehicle is inverted and begins its downward path of the vehicle and its center of gravity into the roadway or the ground. At that moment the roof pillars start to crush under this energy assault to its structure.

To the untrained observer, roof pillars of a Ford Escape 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. A quick glance at some of the roof pictures of the Ford Escape rollovers to you right clearly shows roof pillars or roof supports folded down intruding into the survival space reserved fro the occupants. When this happens, sever spinal cord injuries, head injuries and deaths occur to the occupants, especially those in the front seats. Compounding the problem is the potential release of the seat belt buckle during the wreck or rollover allowing the person to be throw into an unsafe area, roof pillar, roof itself, or ejected out of the vehicle. Additionally if during the rollover there is a door latch failure or door lock malfunction and the door opens during the rollover or wreck, then additional dangers face the occupants.