In today’s auto industry, there appears to be a big push for safety features to help reduce the number of deaths and injuries. With that in mind, I’m very surprised that auto makers are allowed to make vehicles with sun roofs.

If you go to a car dealership, you’ll see some vehicles with sun roofs. If you watch television, you’ll see commercials that glorify sun roofs. They show kids looking up at the trees, which I have to say, looks like a great idea, but area they safe?

I’ve not seen any reported deaths or serious injuries due to sun roofs, but then deaths by alligator or rattlesnake attacks are rare, but great measures are taken to prevent them.

Had we had a sun roof in our SUV back in 2005, I would not be here today to write this.

My wife and I worked at the same place and were heading home from work. She was driving and I was riding in the passenger seat. We had just transitioned from one interstate to another and we moved over safely to the left high-speed lane and were cruising about 65 mph, keeping up with others in the same lane. The interstate was busy with the start of the evening rush hour.

Two lanes to the right, a teenager was driving a sedan with 5 other teens inside. They had a portable television they were watching, as I could see the screen. The girl driving tried to change lanes to her right and realized there was another car there, so she swerved sharply to the left. Her quick reaction was too much and her car fishtailed and then shot straight into our SUV. It hit our vehicle right where I was sitting.

The impact caused our vehicle to spin and then start to turn over towards the driver’s side. The front driver’s side tire buckled, causing our SUV to bounce and go airborne. We landed upside down and skidded about 100 feet down the pavement before coming to a stop.

I took the full impact of landing upside down. The roof caved in, shoving my head down into my body and to my left shoulder. As the SUV slid upside down, I could feel the grinding of the metal roof against the pavement.

When our vehicle stopped sliding, everyone was amazed that we both crawled out. Doctors and paramedics were amazed we weren’t killed and even more amazed that my neck didn’t break and leave me paralyzed. It turns out that I lost 1 ¼ inches in height instantly due to damage to my neck and upper back. I was left with 3 herniated and 2 bulging discs in my neck and 5 discs right between the shoulder blades, compressed down to nothing. I also ended up with a wedge compression of a vertebrae in the middle of my back.

Thankfully, my wife sustained less injuries, but still has problems with her hip, lower back and sciatic nerve.

A couple days ago, I was watching a baseball game and saw a car commercial that featured a car with a sun roof. It made me realize that if we had a sunroof, it would have shattered when we landed upside down and instead of the metal roof grinding against the pavement as we slid down the interstate, it would have been my skull, surely killing me.

There is a reason construction workers wear hardhats instead of baseball caps. There is a reason football players wear hard helmets instead of the old-time leather helmets. There is a reason baseball players wear hard batting helmets instead of the normal baseball caps.

If you look online, you will also find numerous reports of sun roofs leaking in rainy weather and exploding or shattering in hot weather.

The same principle should apply to your vehicle. Lately, while watching the local news, I’ve seen reports of a number of vehicles in accidents that ended upside down on the road, so our accident isn’t that unusual.

Some auto makers install air bags for sun roofs, but when your vehicle is sliding down the road upside down and the sun roof shatters, the air bag is not match to the grinding of the hard pavement.

All of this compels me to warn others NOT to buy a vehicle with a sun roof as you may not to live regret it!