Seat belts are safer, SUVs aren't

[Coventrysucks]

FOR THE FIRST TIME in six years, traffic fatalities declined on American roads -- a development that regulators credit not to safer driving but to safer vehicles and wider use of seat belts.
The decline was slight -- to 42,643 deaths last year, 362 fewer than in 2002, according to government figures released yesterday. Still, the decline came even while people were driving more, meaning the ratio of traffic deaths to miles driven fell to a record of 1.48 fatalities for every 100 million miles driven. Alcohol-related traffic deaths, while still high at 17,013, fell nearly 3%, reversing a three-year trend.
One significant caution for drivers was that despite the great deal of attention being paid to safety issues surrounding sport-utility vehicles, the number of fatalities in SUVs from rollover accidents increased 7%, amid a 12% increase in the number of SUVs on the roads...

...Vehicles also have simply become safer, as front air bags became standard equipment in all new cars. Safety remains one of the concerns most often cited by consumers when purchasing new cars, which hasn't been lost on auto makers. Manufacturers now are offering side-impact air bags, which can help occupants of cars hit by larger sport-utility vehicles, as optional and sometimes standard equipment on more vehicles.
Safer roadways contributed to the improved crash statistics as well, says Kathryn Swanson, chairwoman of the Governors Highway Safety Association and director of the Minnesota Office of Traffic Safety. "I wish I could say it's safer drivers," she says, "but I'm afraid that's probably not it."
An increase in SUV rollover fatalities remains a troubling spot in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's report. The issue is likely to be of major concern to SUV owners and car buyers, particularly in light of data released Monday that showed more than a third of the most popular new SUVs road-tested by the NHTSA last year tipped up on two wheels, the precursor to a rollover crash.
Manufacturers increasingly are installing new safety systems in SUVs to prevent rollovers, such as electronic stability-control systems, since the vehicles remain more prone to rollovers than cars or pickup trucks. Still, the improvements haven't yet led to reduced fatalities.

A 0.8% fall in deaths.
"the result of a focused effort by the Bush administration to make America's roads safer."


So we'll have no more of this "SUV's are safer than cars" rubbish, eh?
And remember: Belt up!

[henk4]

42000 fatalities per year.
In Holland we have about 1000 on a population of less than 16 million. I don't know what the current population of the USA is but to arrive at the same fatality rate as Holland it should be more than 670 million. Of course we are benefitting from the fact that we have far less SUV's

[Karrmann]

well, suvs are very dangeroous, them being safer than cars is total bull shit. they are common to flip on it's side when turning and what about the other car, it wouldget squashed and the other driver could die. SUVS ARE NOT SAFE! ban them from the road!!! (France did)

[henk4]

ban them from the road!!! (germany did)

Can you substantiate that? Would be very interesting to know that the X3,X5 and Cayenne are actually banned in their native country.

[Karrmann]

wait that was france, I was wrong sorry. the roads were getting congested and the SUVS were a big danger to the small cars france loves to drive, so they were taken off the road.

[Coventrysucks]

France didn't ban SUVs.
Paris (not the whole of France) was thinking about banning SUVs in the city, but as far as I am aware, they haven't yet.

[Karrmann]

yes, they have made the law, it is waiting to be passed.

[AKlingel]

I agree with all who oppose the riduculous SUVs that crowd our motorways, but it is also soo sad that the SUVs become even more dangerous in the hands of their drivers.

I think any vehicle can be safe in the right drivers hands... but most people are not good drivers. The danger is of course only compounded by the fact that these poor drivers have a hunk of metal that is 3 times as large as the rest of us.

I say first of all.... before we argue about what is a safer vehicle... lets get better drivers.... and all vehicles would be safer.

DOWN WITH SUVS AND BAD DRIVERS!

[Slicks]

Whats the deal with so many peoplel hating SUVs on this forum??? Put someone who knows how to drive in one and its not going to tip. If you drive them like a normal car and not a race car they will be fine.

[Matra et Alpine]

Whats the deal with so many peoplel hating SUVs on this forum??? Put someone who knows how to drive in one and its not going to tip. If you drive them like a normal car and not a race car they will be fine.

until you have to avoid a moose like the M-B much reported 2-wheeled action
None of the tests done by groups around the world are done at race car speeds or actions. They're normal surfaces, normal speeds, normal hazards !!

The "knows how to drive" is as pointless as "ABS helps stop a car on ice".
Neither make a difference. If you have to respond and steer out of trouble that's what you have to do. If the SUV tips, threre's not much a "good driver" can do about the laws of gravity !!

[Guibo]

This is true. Seat belts do save lives. One of the major causes of death in an SUV rollover is the lack of seat belt use by the occupants. This was found to be the case in a study from last year:
"Eron Shosteck, a spokesman for the Washington-based Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, said rollovers represent only 2.5 percent of all crashes. He added that many SUV rollover deaths could be prevented if the occupants were wearing seat belts."
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TRAVEL/10/15/vehicle.weight.ap/
That study also noted:
"In general, NHTSA found vehicles that weighed less were less safe."

A sentiment echoed in a study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety:
"Of note, occupants of the lightest cars have dramatically higher death rates. Also, most significantly from a safety point of view, heavy pickups and SUVs are associated with far higher death rates in the OTHER vehicle than in themselves, or than death rates caused by comparably heavy cars."
http://www.crashtest.com/explanations/weight/weight.htm

"Mid-sized SUVs were nine times as likely to involve a rollover fatality and twice as likely to cause a fatality in occupants of other vehicles. In non-rollover crashes, the fatality rate for the occupants of SUVs and passenger cars of similar weight was essentially equal.
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/hot/PressDi...e=pr45-03.html


The reduction in overall highway deaths is small. BUT, this is light of the fact that more people are driving more miles:
"The decline was slight -- to 42,643 deaths last year, 362 fewer than in 2002, according to government figures released yesterday. Still, the decline came even while people were driving more, meaning the ratio of traffic deaths to miles driven fell to a record of 1.48 fatalities for every 100 million miles driven."

[Coventrysucks]

Whats the deal with so many peoplel hating SUVs on this forum??? Put someone who knows how to drive in one and its not going to tip. If you drive them like a normal car and not a race car they will be fine.

I don't hate SUVs.
I do like performance cars though, and since most SUVs performance is rather glacial, I don't car for them too much.

"Put someone who knows how to drive in one"

Unfortunately most road users don't care about what they drive, or how they drive it.
They pass their test, and that is it. In case you hadn't noticed, the driving test doesn't really cover having an accident. Sure they do theory, but what good is theory when you hit a big puddle of standing water on the highway at 70mph, whilst chatting on you're mobile?
Crashy- crashy. Most accidents tend to be unexpected, therefore people aren't thinking about opposite lock, or whatever, when they happen.

The majority of SUV owners are going to be included in this category, as people who car about driving, and do advanced courses etc. want to drive something a bit more exciting than a Ford Continent.

The only way to rectify the situation is to have a much more lengthy and in depth programme of driver training, which isn't possible, and most people wouldn't want to do it anyway.

Untill then, you are going to continue to have idiots who don't know how to drive properly, in their SUVs, crashing into things, and rolling over.

So it doesn't really matter if a good driver can curtail an SUV roll-over, if there aren't many good drivers driving SUVs.

[henk4]

[QUOTE=Guibo]"Of note, occupants of the lightest cars have dramatically higher death rates. Also, most significantly from a safety point of view, heavy pickups and SUVs are associated with far higher death rates in the OTHER vehicle than in themselves, or than death rates caused by comparably heavy cars."[/i]
http://www.crashtest.com/explanations/weight/weight.htm


This is a significant point, because it seems to prove these SUV's and trucks are a danger on the roads, not only for the people who drive them, but more specifically for other participants in traffic. It was said that Audi had to include another 50 kg's of protection material in the body of the new A6, to better protect against impacts by SUV's and other big cars. This is where the vicious circle starts, now the A6 becomes unneccesarily heavy, causing additional impact when colliding with a smaller car, which therefore needs additional metal for protection etc. Will this ever stop?
In other countries than the USA a large number of traffic participants consists of pedestrians and cyclists. It can be expected that with the increase of the weight of motorcars, their chances for surviving a collision decrease.
Hopefully Paris will succeed in introducing a sort of ban for these cars in the city centre, just because of the above but also because even when not moving they take one parking spot designed for two small cars. As those who have visited Paris will admit, parking space is a rare commodity over there.

[Coventrysucks]

Will this ever stop?

Probably not, but you can get one of these fairly cheap.

[henk4]

Probably not, but you can get one of these fairly cheap.

I'll prefer to go for an Abrahams, it's bigger and therefore safer. The ones on offer here look rather smallish.