Rollovers account for approximately 10,000 traffic fatalities each year. And 59 percent of all crash deaths in sports utilities occur in rollover accidents. To raise auto survival rate, study suggests automakers should manufacture stronger roofs.

Stronger vehicle roofs would increase the number of people who survive rollover crashes, says a study released by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

The study, which analyzed a total of 22,817 rollover crashes in 12 states between 1997-2005, suggests midsize sport utilities with the strongest roofs have a 39 percent to 57 percent lower injury risk than weaker ones, Detroit News reports.

The 20-page study argues that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration radically underestimates the number of lives that can be saved. To note, the federal safety agency has been debating for decades whether to raise the strength requirements for vehicles.

Currently, the standard requires an auto to withstand a force of 1.5 times its weight before reaching five inches of crush. The federal agency has proposed raising it to 2.5 times the vehicle's weight and will issue a final regulation by the end of July in compliance with the congressional deadline.

It can be recalled that the federal agency proposed upgrading the more than 34-year-old roof strength standard in 2005 noting that its rules across the fleet would save up to 44 lives annually.

Institute researchers predict 212 of 668 midsize sport utility rollover fatalities could have been avoided in 2006 if the more stringent standards were implemented. The institute, an industry-funded group, says the number of lives saved would be significantly larger when applied to the entire vehicle fleet. "These are big risk reductions, bigger than what the government or anyone else has established," says Institute’s President Adrian Lund.

But not everyone in the auto realm finds the study accurate. The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, the trade group that represents the Big 3, Toyota and six other automakers, called the study "flawed." "Unfortunately, there remains no definitive answer as to what effect roof strength has on injury risk in rollover crashes," says the alliance.

Automakers, meanwhile, contend that the study did not take into consideration anti-rollover systems such as electronic stability control (ESC), which will become standard in 2011, will significantly reduce rollovers. Additionally, it also failed to distinguish between belted and unbelted occupants.

With the arrival of revolutionary airbags, turn signal light, ESC, and other safety innovations, road fatalities will eventually decrease.