Aknauta
03-06-2003, 01:13 PM
National Policy Analysis
SUVs: How Safe Are They?
by Amy Ridenour
Fasten your seatbelts for some politically incorrect news: You are most likely to survive a motor vehicle accident if the vehicle you are in is big.
Size and weight equals better occupant protection - it is basic physics - and a big reason for the ongoing popularity of SUVs. You (and your family) stand a much better chance of surviving a major crash in a 4,500-lb. mid-size SUV than in a 2,400-lb. subcompact, especially in a head-on collision.
Yet, ironically, it is SUVs that are increasingly being denounced as "unsafe" - typically by the same crowd that has been trying to force the public into smaller, less crashworthy cars for the past quarter century via government-mandated fuel economy standards.
Part of the attempted crucifixion of SUVs relies on selling half-truths about government crash test data. SUVs are portrayed as menaces because when they are involved in collisions with smaller cars, the smaller cars almost always suffer much more damage. But instead of suggesting that people who value their lives more than miles-per-gallon should consider driving larger, inherently more crashworthy vehicles, including SUVs, critics urge that SUVs (and large passenger cars) be forcibly "downsized" by government regulation in order to make the contest "more equal."
Link (http://www.nationalcenter.o rg/NPA453.html)
SUVs: How Safe Are They?
by Amy Ridenour
Fasten your seatbelts for some politically incorrect news: You are most likely to survive a motor vehicle accident if the vehicle you are in is big.
Size and weight equals better occupant protection - it is basic physics - and a big reason for the ongoing popularity of SUVs. You (and your family) stand a much better chance of surviving a major crash in a 4,500-lb. mid-size SUV than in a 2,400-lb. subcompact, especially in a head-on collision.
Yet, ironically, it is SUVs that are increasingly being denounced as "unsafe" - typically by the same crowd that has been trying to force the public into smaller, less crashworthy cars for the past quarter century via government-mandated fuel economy standards.
Part of the attempted crucifixion of SUVs relies on selling half-truths about government crash test data. SUVs are portrayed as menaces because when they are involved in collisions with smaller cars, the smaller cars almost always suffer much more damage. But instead of suggesting that people who value their lives more than miles-per-gallon should consider driving larger, inherently more crashworthy vehicles, including SUVs, critics urge that SUVs (and large passenger cars) be forcibly "downsized" by government regulation in order to make the contest "more equal."
Link (http://www.nationalcenter.o rg/NPA453.html)