When a vehicle collision occurs the human body sees three distinct events.  The first event involves the vehicle and some external object (e.g. another vehicle, a tree, a wall etc) that we will call Event #1.  The second event involves the occupant as they interface with the vehicle’s interior (e.g, seat belts, seat, door, roof, instrument panel, steering wheel, etc) that we will call Event #2.    Finally, the third event involves the internal organs of the human body as it interfaces with the frame of the body, called Event #3. 

                         Event #1, the crash, occurs over 10 million times a year in the United States alone.  Because of this frequency the auto manufacturers and researchers have developed techniques to protect the occupants from Events #2 and #3.  Unfortunately, the auto manufacturers do not always include these life saving techniques and features in all of their vehicles. Some of these items are hidden from view of the consumer, who is lulled into a false sense of security, believing that their vehicle might be safe.

                        During a crash event, the lack of such life saving equipment can lead to serious injury or death, which could have been prevented by the due care of the auto makers.  Otherwise protectable collisions now become the source of trauma that changes the lives of the driver or passenger and their families forever.    Should you file a lawsuit against the automaker, they will try to blame Event #1 and any body else to deflect the blame away from themselves, the real culprit for not making their cars safe enough. 

                        The name for the type of case just described is called a “crashworthiness case”.  Crashworthiness cases pit the plaintiff against giant corporations that set no boundaries when it comes to covering up their inadequacies.  To successfully pursue such a case, the plaintiff’s attorney has to be willing to invest vast resources (both time and money) to slay the dragon, who is disguised as the auto maker.  The plaintiff’s attorney first needs to become educated in the field of crashworthiness and the type of experts that work in this field.   The attorney must retain and work with the following experts:

• An expert who can assess the crash itself and be able to not just determine fault but be able to reliably calculate engineering parameters of the crash for use by the other experts.
• A bio-medical expert who understands how the human body becomes injured and what forces it takes to create which type of injuries.  Do not confuse this expert with a treating doctor.   While there are some treating doctors that possess this expertise, most do not.  Specific training is required to provide expert testimony in this field.  Unfortunately this field is populated with many imposters whose testimony stands a good chance of being not admissible at trial under various state and federal court doctrines.    But without such expertise you will surely be overrun by the auto maker
• Your lead expert is usually a hardware expert or series of hardware experts to deal with the specific crashworthiness issues of your case.  You may need a seat belt expert, a seat expert, a roof structures expert just to name a few and these experts must be able to effectively interface with the remainder of  your team
• In addition you will still need to develop the damages side of your case with the usual cast of experts for economic loss, vocational rehabilitation expert, life care planner, etc. 

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