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Clegg Rollover Accident | Video Transcript
MALE VOICE: Michelle Laugh, Charles Clegg's daughter.
MALE VOICE: Shawn Laugh, Charles Clegg's son-in-law.
MALE VOICE: Gail Clegg, Charles Clegg's wife.
GAYLE CLEGG: And she said there was a bad wreck. And someone got killed. And when I saw them walking towards my house, I knew Chick was the one that got killed.
MALE VOICE: Mr. Clegg's death was an entirely preventable and needless one.
MALE VOICE: When one learns that the manufacturer of the truck in which Mr. Clegg was killed, Chrysler, knew about multiple Dodge Dakota roof crush cases years before the Cleggs ever owned one, sympathy for the Clegg family quickly turns to anger.
MALE VOICE: The most important aspect of crashworthiness is keeping vehicle occupants inside the vehicle. A drunk driver crossed the center line and side-swiped Mr. Clegg's Dakota. There was no head-on collision. But the side-swipe was enough to destablize the Dakota. And it yawed counterclockwise and rolled over three times.
As early as 1969 Chrysler's chief engineer was aware of how critical it was for head room to be preserved in a roll-over incident.
MALE VOICE: The vehicle rolled two and three-quarter times in five seconds. There is ample head room remaining after two and three-quarter rolls. This is a 50-mile-per-hour roll, five complete rolls with the roof not touching the ground on three of the five rolls.
MALE VOICE: As early as 1934, Chrysler was touting the strengths of vehicle roofs in a series of demonstration videos. Unfortunately, the Chrysler trucks of 1998 had far weaker, more dangerous roofs than vehicles designed in 1934.
MALE VOICE: Finally, if Chrysler was unwilling to build a reasonably strong roof, it could have at least told its customers the truth, warning them that this vehicle lacks a roof sufficiently strong to protect you in a roll-over. But of course, if it did that, it would've have sold very many Dakotas.
A jury in this case may ask, "What right did Chrysler have to decide that the Cleggs didn't even need to know the risks Chrysler was taking with their lives and the lives of their family?" The jury in this case will also learn that there is nothing particularly difficult about designing a roof strong enough to protect vehicle occupants in a roll-over and that the technology to do so has existed for over 70 years.
