Today’s consumers deserve a heavy-duty pickup that can withstand a rollover and roof crush. The Ford F-250 and Ford F-350 have consistently failed their passengers for decades in rollover accidents. The Ford Super Duty pickups such as F-250 and F-350 have roofs that are inherently weaker due to their enormous weights. They are also extremely prone to rolling over due to high centers of gravity. Ford has further endangered the consumer by using hollow supports (to save weight) in the vital roof pillars that protect the occupants from a roof caving when the truck has flipped over.
If forced, the automakers can produce a vehicle with a stronger roof. Half ton and light duty trucks have progressed immensely in rollover crash tests since the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) forced automakers to raise their standards in 2009. Meanwhile, heavy-duty trucks weighing over 10,000 pounds were exempted from the new roof crush standards so automakers like Ford and GM have shown little to zero effort to improve the safety of their occupants in rollover accidents and use the same truck cab, designed for a much lighter truck, in their heavy duty and super duty lineups. 
Unfortunately, the Ford F-250 and F-350’s designation as super duty, heavy duty, or commercial trucks has exempted them from many of the safety tests and crash tests that the family consumer would demand from their other family vehicles to keep loved ones safe. Currently, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) uses a strength-to-weight ratio to rate a vehicles crashworthiness in a rollover or roof crush test. A vehicle can be rated good, acceptable, marginal, or poor dependent on a particular vehicle’s test results in the strength-to-weight ratio. The test is conducted by pushing a metal plate at various angles on the vehicles roof until the roof is crushed in 5 inches. These strength-to-weight roof crush ratios are not currently available to the public for trucks over 10,000 pounds.
Since commercial and heavy-duty trucks are exempt from much of the crash testing, little to no data is available each year to the consumer on how a Ford F250 or Ford F350 will perform in crash testing. What we do know is that currently Ford and General Motors are using the same cab structures in both their half ton or light duty trucks and in their heavy-duty or F-250 or F-350 lines of trucks. Common sense would dictate that a truck cab and roof designed for a 1500 or F-150 series truck is not going to hold up well in heavy-duty or Super duty truck that weighs many 1000’s of pounds more. Without roof-crush ratings for HD trucks, there is not enough pressure from regulators or the public to demand stronger, life-saving roofs.
No longer are these Ford F-250 and F-350 trucks limited to commercial and heavy-duty applications. These are now common family vehicles that demand higher attention to child safety, roof crush resistance, and crashworthiness. Ford continues to maintain that its current trucks are very safe and the hundreds killed and severely injured in their F-250 and F-350 rollovers are “extraordinary circumstances.”
Ford Rollover & Roof Crush Defect – Free Review
If you or a member of your family has been involved in any type of rollover accident, whether it involved a passenger car, van, SUV or truck, then you may have legal rights in a court of law to file a products liability lawsuit
Get a free case review by Mr. Willis, a Board-Certified Personal Injury Trial Lawyer with over 36 years of product liability and rollover litigation experience. Call 1-800-883-9858 for a Free & Confidential Consultation or Click Here.
