Rolling Over the Facts on SUV Safety

More people were killed last year in rollover-type accidents involving pickup trucks and SUVs than in previous years--statistically speaking, about 1.51 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. But despite alarmist reportage by the major media and SUV-haters in the punditocracy, that is still pretty low by historical standards. (There were 5.5 million deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled in the mid-1960s, and 1.75 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled in 1992.)

Moreover, it's rarely mentioned in anti-SUV rants that rollover-type accidents account for just 2.5 percent of all crashes. Or that the actual number of people killed in these kinds of accidents, while impressive-sounding in terms of percentage increases from year to year--up 4.9 percent from 2001 to 2002, for instance--represent, in actuality, a relatively small numerical increase: 10,626 deaths in 2002 vs. 10,130 in 2001, for an annual increase of 496 deaths.

In a nation of 300 million people with 16.6 million new vehicles sold every year--half of them SUVs and pickups--that's hardly an "epidemic" of rollover-type crashes. (For comparison, 3,529 people drowned in swimming-pool accidents in 1999 alone, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.)

There are also vastly more SUVs and pickups on the roads today than there were 10 or 20 years ago, both in terms of actual numbers and as a percentage of the nation's vehicle fleet. In fact, this year SUVs, pickups, and other "light truck" sales will constitute a majority of all new-vehicle sales.

It stands to reason that the more SUVs there are on the road, the more accidents involving them there will be.

Few news stories about the supposedly "dramatic" rise in fatal accidents involving "dangerous" and "unstable" SUVs mention these facts, though--leaving the average American with the false impression that vehicular carnage is at historically high levels--and that SUVs and pickups are far more risky to drive than they really are. Read more >> COPYRIGHT 2003 ERIC PETERS

this is the entire article.

Nope, two more pages(you have to click on "Read more > >" ;-)

While no increase in accidents or fatalities of any sort is a good thing, some perspective is clearly in order.

Another fact worth pointing out is that, in the overwhelming majority of accidents (the 97.5 percent that are not rollovers), SUVs are safer to be in than the typical passenger car. In side, frontal, and rear-end collisions, for example, the typical 4,500-pound SUV offers 2-3 times more protection against impact forces than a 3,000-pound compact or midsize sedan. Also, an SUV with four-wheel drive is less likely to be involved in an accident in the first place--or suffer loss of control--in certain conditions, such as when driving in heavy rain or on snow-covered roads. And 59 percent of those killed in SUV rollover accidents likely would have survived, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, had they simply been wearing their seat belts.

Considered as a whole, the facts indicate that SUVs are more than reasonably safe; indeed, their overall safety is demonstrably superior to that of the typical compact and midsize passenger car--when they are driven responsibly.

Unfortunately, as SUVs have become popular mass-market vehicles (instead of the specialty/"niche" vehicles they once were), more and more people who don't really understand SUVs, or have much respect for what they are built to do--and not do--are driving them to work every day.

Some buy SUVs because of their rugged looks, higher ride height, or ability to carry lots of groceries. But fewer than 5 percent of all SUV owners ever take their SUVs off-road, according to auto-industry surveys.

Thus we have the problem of a large, and growing, group of people who buy SUVs--vehicles specifically built to handle rugged terrain, deep mud, snow, etc.--but who rarely, if ever, actually use the off-road capability built into these vehicles. Yet the capabilities built into most SUVs to let them handle off-road conditions are also the source of the SUV's weaknesses, if driven aggressively--and are the real cause of the "rollover epidemic."

A higher center of gravity (resulting from having the vehicle's mass well above the ground) can make an SUV more "tipsy," but this only becomes a serious problem if the driver pushes the SUV into corners, makes violent lane changes, or turns at high speed. Mud-and-snow-rated tires, such as are typically found on SUVs, are great for the conditions they were designed to deal with, but offer less lateral grip if the vehicle is thrown into a hard turn. Weight transfer is another area where SUVs differ from passenger cars; under hard braking, acceleration, and cornering, an SUV's weight shifts more dramatically, unsettling the vehicle. This can be a particular problem during a tire failure at high speed (70-plus mph), as occurred during the recent Ford Explorer/Firestone-tire debacle.

Many SUV drivers have gotten themselves into trouble by assuming that an exit ramp or bend posted at 35 or 45 mph is perfectly safe to take at 5-10 mph over the posted limit--because their cars can handle the same curve at that speed with no difficulty. But the car's strengths in cornering are the SUV's weakness--just as the car would be in trouble in deep snow, or when attempting to cross a stream. However, it's not the SUV's fault if it's pushed beyond its limits and is expected to handle a situation it wasn't designed for, any more than it's a "design defect" of the average passenger car that it can't scrabble up dirt-covered backwoods trails very well.

Yet the strategy of an increasingly vocal group of self-styled "safety advocates" is to blame SUVs first, put out half-truths about their safety record, and demand new regulations--not to urge that SUV drivers be educated to drive their vehicles appropriately and with respect for their built-in limitations in high-speed, fast-cornering situations.

The auto industry is doing some good by building more on-road-friendly SUVs, or "crossovers." Constructed on car-type platforms that are lower to the ground, these vehicles ride, handle, and behave more like passenger cars--even though they still look like burly SUVs on the outside.

But there's only so much "idiot-proofing" that can be done. People who insist on driving their SUVs at 80 mph and weaving through dense traffic--and then taking off-ramps, posted at 35 mph, at 50 mph--are going to get into trouble no matter what the federal government forces the automakers to do.

But it's unfair (and counterproductive) to blame the vehicles and those who build them--or to force responsible SUV drivers to pay more for new technology and equipment, such as factory-installed stability-control systems, and so forth, that are designed to protect the willfully irresponsible from themselves.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.