A woman died in a rollover accident last week in Big Cottonwood Canyon after her jeep cut across several lanes of traffic and rolled into Big Cottonwood Creek. She was accompanied by an adult male passenger, was driving down the canyon after 3 pm when she evidently lost control of the vehicle and crashed her vehicle. She was transported to the hospital in critical condition where she died later that night due to her injuries. Her male passenger was treated and released at the scene of the accident. A preliminary investigation concluded that alcohol played a role in the event, though final reports will not be available for weeks.
We express our condolences to the family for the loss of their loved one.
Rollovers
Rollovers are no new thing to recent news. Statistics show that rollover accidents account for more than 10,000, or nearly a quarter, of deaths across America each year, and Utah, with multiple fatal rollover accidents in the last few months, seems to be no exception to the trend. In each of these cases, ranging from truck drivers in Duchesne County to the mother of the mayor of West Valley city, at least one life has been lost, which equates to pain and suffering for numerous individuals.
There are some common factors in most rollover accidents. Speed often plays a factor, meaning that steep canyon declines, of which there are many in Utah, can contribute greatly to such an accident. Top-heaviness of vehicles is another serious factor in rollover accidents; therefore, for vehicles such as SUV’s and semis or other large trucks, rollovers can be a serious risk. Prior to the year 2000, SUV’s had the highest involvement rate of any vehicle type in fatal crashes.
The good news for SUVs is that the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety now reports that with new features the SUV, as of 2011, is less likely to be involved in fatal crashes than ordinary car. With electronic stability control (ESC), now available in all SUVs sold in America, and revamped car design, SUV drivers are half as likely as drivers of ordinary cars to die in an accident. In newer cars, SUV drivers now have much less risk to experience a rollover accident.