www.suv.org/safety.html
Take Our Quiz * Light trucks crashing into cars accounts for the majority of fataliti es in vehicle-to-vehicle collisions * 2,000 people would still be alive if their vehicles had been hit by a heavy car instead of an SUV 80 percent of car and SUV owners strongly that automakers should make s afety changes to SUVs that would make the roads safer for car occupants ARE SUV'S SAFE? Overall safety on America's roads has increased over the last decade. How ever, sport utility vehicles (SUVs) threaten to reverse the trend. Ther e is increasing evidence that SUVs are not as safe as they appear. Rece nt studies show that SUVs pose a significant threat to drivers and passe ngers of other cars on the road. In addition, there are indications tha t safety problems threaten passengers and drivers of SUVs themselves. Most drivers want to feel safe on the road, but choosing an SUV for safet y may be making the situation worse. Like an arms race, as more drivers choose heavier cars, those who cho ose lighter cars are in more danger. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the government agency studying the safety of SUVs, desc ribes two characteristics of SUVs and other light trucks that have the p otential to increase fatalities: rollover propensity and crash compatibi lity.
Sport utility vehicles are more than three times more likely to ro ll over in crash than normal passenger cars. The higher roll-over prope nsity may also lead to higher fatalities. The high ride contrib utes to a propensity of SUVs to roll over in accidents. According to NHT SA, SUVs rollover in 37 percent of fatal crashes, compared to a 15 perce nt rollover rate for passenger cars. Rollover crashes accounted for 53 percent of all SUV occupant deaths in single vehicle crashes in 1996. On ly 19 percent of occupant fatalities in passenger cars occurred in simil ar crashes.
Consumers Union, publisher of Consume r Reports magazine, along with the Center for Auto Safety and the Safety First Coalition, first reported serious rollover concerns with a small SUV model, the Suzuki Samurai, in 1988. In 1997, Consumers Union report ed that the Isuzu Trooper, Acura SLX, Suzuki Samurai and Ford Bronco II had "shown a significant tendency to tip." Since 1988, Consumers Union has tried to get the government safety agency, NHTSA, to investigate cer tain SUV models and issue rollover standards for cars and SUVs. NHTSA b egan to do so, but abandoned efforts to make a universal rollover standa rd in 1994 concluding that such a standard would require a redesign of n early all SUVs, vans and pick-up trucks. NHTSA reasoned that the cost f or this redesign would be too high.
Technical Services writes: "The Bronco II has a 'handling' problem like many other of the small sport u tility vehicles. A friction rollover occurs when the cornering forces - tire friction forces - gene rated by the driver's steering input becomes high enough to cause the ve hicle to rotate around its longitudinal axis and lift the tires off the ground. Most passenger vehicles cannot rollover in this way, although th ey can rollover as a result of wheel trip when the sliding wheel is bloc ked by a curb or some other impediment."
SUVs do not have to meet the same safety standards as passenger cars. The double standard exists due to arcane federal rules classifying SUVs as light trucks. Less rigid rules mean occupants of SUVs are not protected by the side-impact crash safety standards or strength requirements for bumpers required on standard passenger cars. According to The Truck, Va n and 4x4 book, 1998 by Jack Gillis, the "newly adopted roof strength st andard does not go far enough to effectively protect occupants in a roll over situation."
In a test designed to show how well vehicles p rotect the driver and passengers in a crash, midsized SUVs were given a rating of "good", "acceptable", "marginal" or "poor". Five were rated as "acceptable," three as " marginal," and five as "poor." Popular models including the Jeep Grand C herokee and Nissan Pathfinder earned "marginal" ratings. "Poor" ratings went to models such as the Chevy Blazer, GMC Jimmy and the Isuzu Rodeo. The tests measured how well head restraints and bumpers performed and d amage to the vehicle's structure. In addition, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety looked at driver death rates. Ho wever mid-sized and smaller SUVs - like the Nissan Pathfinder, Suzuki Si dekick, and Jeep Wrangler - had driver death rates substantially higher than average. In examining deaths per million passengers, SUVs had near ly the same death rates in accidents as small cars, but substantially mo re fatalities than mid-sized or large cars.
Proper head restraints can lower the severity of whiplash injuries in an accident. In a May 1999 study, the Institute found only two models of SUVs - the Mitsubishi Montero and cer tain models of the Chevy Blazer - had head restraints that merited a "go od" rating.
What they are not told is that they may be putting their own lives, and the lives of other people on the road, in serious danger by driving these oversized, poorly design ed vehicles. CRASH COMPATIBILITY While SUVs pose serious safety problems for their occupants, recent studi es are showing that SUVs are greatly increasing the danger on our roads for drivers and passengers in other cars. Federal information shows th at although light trucks account for one-third of all registered vehicle s, traffic crashes between a light truck and any other vehicle now accou nt for the majority of fatalities in vehicle-to-vehicle collisions. Of t he 5,259 fatalities caused when light trucks struck cars in 1996, 81 per cent of the fatally injured were occupants of the car.
It is natural to think that SUVs would cause more damage in accidents, beca use they tend to be heavier than other cars. However, the danger from S UVs appears to be caused by more than just their weight. Comparisons bet ween vehicles that have similar weights, like the Ford Taurus, a mid-siz ed sedan, and the Ford Ranger, a pick-up (which provides the platform fo r the Ford Explorer), have shown disproportionate impacts in accidents. The increased damage results in large part from the design of these vehic les. On average, light trucks and SUVs are designed to ride eight inche s higher than a car. SUVs also have a more rigid frame - usually consis ting of two steel rails. These two design factors greatly increase the damage caused in a crash with a passenger car. In March 1999 NHTSA examined the design of many popular SUVs and found th at the height and frames of SUVs make them extra lethal to people riding in smaller vehicles. Differences in vehicle weight did not account for the extra risk. NHTSA conducted tests showing what happens when an SUV crashes into a Honda Accord. Several SUVs were crashed into the front driver's-side corner of the Accord. While the results might indicate that the Explorer i s the safer vehicle, video of the crash test shows that the Explorer nea rly rolled over after hitting the Accord, and teetering on two wheels fo r several moments.
This is in important fin ding, because auto manufacturers have maintained that the weight of SUVs make them dangerous to smaller cars, not the design. The NHTSA study c oncludes that 2,000 people would have survived if their vehicles had bee n hit by a heavy car instead of a heavy SUV. Two thousand is five perce nt of the nation's annual traffic fatalities. The study declares that l ight trucks and SUVs are twice as likely to cause a fatality in the stru ck car than a passenger car of comparable weight.
When Ford Mo tor Company introduced it's new monster, the Excursion (19 feet long, 6 1/2 feet wide, and weighing in at 8,500 pounds), Ford added a front beam and a rear tow hitch to prevent other vehicles from sliding under the E xcursion during an accident. The Excursion will be the largest SUV on t he market and could be extremely dangerous in an accident with a smaller vehicle since almost every vehicle on the road is smaller. For instance, placement of headligh ts is a serious nuisance and a potential safety problem. On large SUVs, the headlights are mounted ...
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