CDC Triage Guidelines & Rollover Crash Deaths: Tragically 70% are Not Taken for Medical Care

Lou Lombardo — December 15, 2021

Lady Justice weeping as money tips the scales over the people; graphic by Neil Angeles.

Will CDC (and NHTSA) and auto companies ever recognize that 70% of Rollover Fatalities Not Taken for Medical Care year after year is not acceptable?

In 2006, GM gave $250,000 to the CDC Foundation to have CDC issue new Triage Guidelines.¹

The shocking result was that in 2006, the CDC Division of Injury Prevention and Control removed “Rollover and Extrication” from the American College of Surgeons Triage Guidelines that had been followed around the world for decades.

I could not understand that action until, in 2007, I learned that it was cheaper, by about $20 million per case, for the auto companies if the crash victims died.²

I have tried since 2007 to get CDC and NHTSA to restore “Rollover and Extrication” to the Triage Guidelines through articles and petitions – to no avail.^{3, 4, 5}

Why did CDC do it? See the List of Corporate Sponsors to CDC Foundation including GM, OnStar, and Toyota.⁶

Now we find that in 2019, the number of rollover fatalities recorded by NHTSA amounted to 7,024 deaths.⁷

And, of the 7,024 rollover fatalities, 4,897 deaths (70%) were “Not Taken” to ANY medical facility, much less a trauma center, for timely, optimal care for their injuries.

For each day in 2019 that was about 13 rollover crash fatalities Not Taken for care.

In 2019, the rate of Rollover crash deaths “Not Taken” for care was 70% of the rollover crash deaths. This rate was up from the average of 61% over the period 1982 – 2019.

The number and the percent of Rollover fatalities “Not Taken” for care in 2019 by State are shown below.⁸

2019 Ranking of Crash Fatality Rates Rollover Fatalities Not Taken for Care; courtesy of CareForCrashVictims.com.

Note that in Red States there were 2,765 Rollover fatalities “Not Taken” while in Blue States there were 2,112 Rollover fatalities “Not Taken”.How many needless Rollover crash deaths will it take before CDC restores “Rollover and Extrication” to the Triage Guidelines? “Rollover and Extrication” had been in the Triage Guidelines for nearly 20 years prior to 2006.

The number of Rollover fatalities “Not Taken” for care for the years 2007 through 2019 amounts to 74,074 lives lost.

And this number will grow as NHTSA has just announced that the number of fatalities in the first six months of 2021 amounted to 20,160 people – an increase of 18.4% – the largest 6 month increase ever recorded.⁹

Thus, the removal of “Rollover and Extrication” from the CDC Triage Guidelines in 2006 was a defect by design funded by GM, OnStar, Toyota and others that is producing an enormous number of tragedies.

How many more Rollover fatalities “Not Taken” for care will it take to get CDC to restore Rollover and Extrication to the Triage Guidelines?

Will CDC (and NHTSA) and auto companies ever recognize that 70% of Rollover Fatalities Not Taken for Medical Care year after year is not acceptable?

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