U.S. Auto Deaths Hit 12-Year High in 2002

Yahoo ^ | Thu Jul 17, 3:08 PM ET | John Crawley

[Jhoffa_]

And PS:

The problem isn't the SUV, it's the people driving them. They look like and are marketed as a big station wagon, people buy them and viola! They don't handle like a station wagon. In fact, they aren't a station wagon at all.

They are a really short, and in some cases narrow, truck with a high CG and they are extremely sensitive to pilot error. You just can't expect a SUV that sits a foot and a half off the ground to handle like mom's ford tarus.

And if you do, you're going to pay for it.

Most people don't even know how to properly operate front wheel drive vehicles, let alone a mammoth SUV. It's no wonder they are getting killed.

[frithguild]

Helmets will not protect against cervical spine injuries caused by flail. I am not sure about the current consensus among bioengineers about eficacy of a helmet in preventing other forseeable injuries with a three point restraint. Nevertheless, can you immagine JaLo steping out of an Escalade at the Academy Awards and removing her helmet...???

Auto manufacturers are brimming with marketing studies concluding that more adequate protection from flail injuries will not "sell." As a result, I can't buy an OEM five point system that gives me the best protection.

Societal tolerance for automotive injuries mystifies me.

[Bob J]

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[frithguild]

"Quite true! A rolling vehicle tries VERY hard to fling everything inside it out, including all the occupants, their heads, limbs, etc. Not pretty."

I have seen too much evidence of this phenomena in practice. "Whipping" isthe term bioengineers use. The lap belt holds the lower body and the upper body whips. In Jeeps, for example, the upper body whipps outside of the vehicle, embedding road debris, gravel, etc. in the head, etc.

[RightWhale]

can you imagine JaLo stepping out of an Escalade at the Academy Awards and removing her helmet

Sure would be a good time to be in the car helmet business. A whole new area of specialty would be created overnight for unemployed sno-board designers, too. Full-face snow machine or dirt bike style? Touring bike or full racing aeroshell? Make mine neon-free, please skip the hands-free cell.

[Jhoffa_]

BWAHHAHA!!! BWAHAHAH!!

LOL! LOL!

[eno_]

I'll make sure to Google up the most gruesome photos when it comes time to talk the wife into letting me trade the Disco in for a Z4.

[RogueIsland]

When will The Brady Center release a statement telling us which car dealers sold the most cars that ended up in fatal crashes? Is that insitution not concerned about these "merchants of death"?

[DeathfromBelow]

Maybe driving is up due to people not FLYING since 9-11. More people on the road, more chances for death.

[Leonard Evans]

While traffic deaths per mile have indeed declined, the decline is dramatically less than occurred in other countries. If our safety policy had not been so influenced by the agenda of Ralph Nader and his protégé Joan Claybrook, about 200,000 fewer Americans would have been killed in traffic in the last two decades. Our whole focus accepts crashes as inevitable, and sources of litigation wealth. The only really effective way to reduce death in traffic is to reduce the number of crashes -- a simple truism widely accepted outside our litigious society. This is documented in detail in my new book "TRAFFIC SAFETY" (ISBN 0975487108 published August 2004) described at
http://www.scienceservingsociety.com/traffic-safety.htm
The site has the complete text - note particularly “The Dramatic Failure of US Safety Policy” at
http://www.scienceservingsociety.com/ts/text/ch15.htm