Tucson — MARISSA STERNBERG sits in her wheelchair, barely able to move or speak. Caregivers are always at her side. Progress is measured in tiny steps: an unclenched fist, a look of recognition, a smile for her father.
Nearly four years ago, Sternberg was a high-spirited 19-year-old bound for veterinary school in Denver. She rented a U-Haul trailer to move her belongings, hitched it to her Toyota Land Cruiser and hit the road with her two dogs and a friend.
That evening, as the Land Cruiser descended a hill in the Chihuahuan Desert of New Mexico, the trailer began to swing from side to side, pushing the SUV as if trying to muscle it off the road.
"I knew something bad was going to happen," recalled Corina Maya Hollander, who was taking a turn behind the wheel. "We both knew."
The Land Cruiser flipped and bounced along Interstate 25. The trailer broke free and careened off the road. Hollander crawled from the wreckage, her head throbbing.
Sternberg, who had been thrown from the SUV, lay sprawled on the highway, unable to move.
"Where are my dogs?" she screamed. "Somebody go find my dogs!"
Sternberg fell victim to a peril long familiar to U-Haul International: "trailer sway," a leading cause of severe towing accidents.
Traveling downhill or shaken by a sharp turn or a gust of wind, a trailer can begin swinging so violently that only the most experienced -- or fortunate -- drivers can regain control and avoid catastrophe.
U-Haul, the nation's largest provider of rental trailers, says it is "highly conservative" about safety. But a yearlong Times investigation, which included more than 200 interviews and a review of thousands of pages of court records, police reports, consumer complaints and other documents, found that company practices have heightened the risk of towing accidents.
The safest way to tow is with a vehicle that weighs much more than the trailer. A leading trailer expert and U-Haul consultant has likened this principle to "motherhood and apple pie."
Yet U-Haul allows customers to pull trailers as heavy as or heavier than their own vehicles.
It often allows trailers to stay on the road for months without a thorough safety inspection, in violation of its own policies.
Bad brakes have been a recurring problem with its large trailers. The one Sternberg rented lacked working brakes.
Its small and midsize trailers have no brakes at all, a policy that conflicts with the laws of at least 14 states.
