Complete or partial ejection from a passenger vehicle is among the most lethal outcomes in any crash type. NHTSA’s FARS data over the 2000s show that ejected occupants in rollover collisions died at roughly twenty-five times the rate of non-ejected occupants, and that avoiding complete ejection is associated with a 64 percent decrease in death risk. Ejections are not random—they are the consequence of structural failures: door latches that release, side glazing that vacates the window plane, body structures that buckle inward and create gaps, and roofs that collapse and unseat the doors.
Cronauer Law handles vehicle structure and ejection cases nationwide. These cases combine multiple defect theories—door latch, glazing, body structure, and often roof crush—and demand a coordinated engineering presentation across each component.
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Vehicle side windows have historically been tempered: a single-ply heat-treated glass that shatters into pebbles and vacates the window plane when broken. In rollovers and side impacts, tempered glazing becomes an open ejection portal. NHTSA has documented that in vehicles that roll more than once, roof deformation occurs in approximately 80 percent of cases, often deforming the door and window frame and inducing side-window failure.
Laminated glazing—two glass plies bonded to a polyvinyl butyral interlayer, the same construction as a windshield—does not vacate the window plane when broken. It cracks, but the interlayer holds the panel in place. Push-out testing of tempered versus laminated side glass shows dramatic differences in occupant retention. Laminated side glazing has been technologically available for decades; failure to specify it for side windows is a recognized failure-to-equip and design defect theory.
Door openings during crashes occur at a rate of roughly 42,000 per year in the United States. NHTSA’s engineering analysis identifies four distinct latch failure modes:
Physical damage to the latch, striker, or hinges, including separation from the supporting structure. Often visible on inspection.
Striker subjected to longitudinal and lateral forces causing fork bolt misalignment with the detent lever. Most common in frontal and oblique frontal impacts.
Forces transmitted through the door’s linkage system from vehicle deformation, opening the latch despite no direct loading on the latch itself.
Acceleration of latch components relative to each other producing sufficient inertial force to activate the latch. Common in rollovers. Often no visible damage on the latch or striker.
FMVSS 206 governs door latches and hinges. As with other FMVSS, compliance with FMVSS 206 is not a defense to a state-law claim of inadequate latch design.
The body structure of a vehicle—the unibody or body-on-frame architecture, the A-, B-, and C-pillars, the roof rail, the rocker, and the floor pan—is responsible for maintaining occupant survival space. A body structure that buckles, collapses, or intrudes excessively places occupants in direct contact with the ground, with the striking object, or with deformed structures inside the cabin.
Body structure cases are typically pleaded alongside roof crush, since rollover roof collapse is the single largest source of survival-space failure. Recent retrospective rollover research confirms that A-pillar and B-pillar deformation, along with maximum lateral deformation adjacent to the occupant, are statistically significant predictors of head, face, and neck injury in belted occupants.
In 2011, NHTSA promulgated FMVSS 226, which requires ejection mitigation through the side window opening for occupants in the first three seating rows. Compliance phased in through 2017. The standard accelerated industry adoption of side curtain airbags with extended deployment, laminated side glazing, and combinations of both. Vehicles built before phase-in completion are evaluated against the contemporaneously available technology.
Ejection injuries are catastrophic. Full ejection cases are wrongful death; partial ejection cases produce traumatic brain injury, traumatic amputations, severe degloving and burn-equivalent abrasion injuries, and permanent functional loss. Cronauer Law builds the damages presentation with life-care planners, vocational economists, and treating physicians from the inception of the case.
Cost. Laminated glazing costs more than tempered. The technology has been available for decades; certain luxury manufacturers have used it on side windows since the 1990s. Failure to specify it on more affordable vehicles is a recognized failure-to-equip theory.
Full ejection means the occupant is fully outside the vehicle at rest. Partial ejection means part of the occupant—typically the head and upper torso—has been outside the vehicle during the crash, often in repeated cycles during a rollover. Both are catastrophic; partial ejection is sometimes survivable but often produces severe disfigurement and traumatic brain injury.
Yes. Inertial force failures—particularly in rollovers—can release the latch with no visible deformation of the latch or striker. The forensic analysis depends on the latch type, the position of the door at rest, the location of any witness marks, and the manufacturer’s prior knowledge of inertial latch failure in the model line.
No. State-law product liability claims for inadequate door latch design are not preempted by FMVSS 206 or its companion standards. The Safety Act’s savings clause, 49 U.S.C. § 30103(e), preserves common-law remedies.
Lack of restraint may be relevant under comparative fault rules in some states but does not bar structural-defect claims. The vehicle owes a duty of care to belted and unbelted occupants alike for foreseeable crashes.
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If you were injured in any way–medically, emotionally, physically, in a car, at work, on the street–then you may have a case. Employers, companies, and individuals have a “duty of care.” This term refers to each person’s obligation to avoid actions or situations that endanger other people.
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