Report - SUVs no safer than cars for kids
Fans of
large vehicles professed their love of physics several years ago when, to no one's surprise, it was announced that SUVs
and large cars offered significantly better protection to their occupants during a collision with a compact car. Let's
see how they take this news, though - a group called the Partners for Child Passenger Safety has unveiled a report
claiming that children are just as likely to be injured in an SUV as they are in a car. The study looked at data only from '98-up vehicles with second-generation airbags, and found that while SUVs provided a significant improvement in safety during crashes where they remained upright (a one-third decrease in injury rate), the increased chance of injury during rollovers (a 3x increase) and the SUVs' propensity to do so (twice as likely as cars to end up shiny-side-down) resulted in no net difference in the chance of injury to a young passenger (1.7%). Ah, Occam's Razor apparently is double-edged.
Still, something to take away from this is that there's less than a one in fifty chance of injury to a young passenger during an accident in either type of vehicle. That, to me, is quite impressive.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Barry 7:37PM (1/03/2006)
Different manufacturers and models, different outcomes. And a lot has changed since 1998! The Volvo XC90 is probably one, if not the most safe SUV's or vehicles on the road. It would be interesting to know which model they used in their testing because will the XC90, first of all it would be pretty difficult to roll it over without being in a collision, and second, with the strengthend roof, 3 rows of side airbags and pretentioners on all three rows... you get my point,
and no, I don't at a Volvo dealership ;)
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fasternu426 7:45PM (1/03/2006)
Wow, another slap at SUV's. I guess they will leave SUV drivers alone when everyone is is in some kind of tiny little eco-mobile.
Most SUV rollovers (and other types of accidents) are due to driver error. Get the cell phone out of your ear and back off of the car in front of you! Before everytihng else, DRIVE THE FREAKING VEHICLE! As more people drive SUV's and are not used to the weight and handling characteristics, accidents increase proportinately.
I see plenty of geniuses trying to drive an Excursion or a Suburban as if it were a Neon. Any increase in injuries to children (I believe) are a result of an increase of children in them with inexperienced drivers trying to stuff them into a corner like some kind of rally driver. If you don't believe me, go to your local mall and walk through the parking lot. See how these people park these vehicles. The way they park is probably indicative of how they drive. If you can't judge where the front of your veh is and where your wheels are at all times, how can you handle the vehicle at highway speeds. Also most people can drive in a straight line, but totally lose their minds when a serions driving condition happens, a sudden stop where the car goes into a skid can end up in a rollover with a large veh and an inexperienced driver.
Bottom line, leave the vehicle alone, the fault is the drivers, most Americans need to be truly educated in driving before getting a license.
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theautoprophet 8:24PM (1/03/2006)
I will get a copy of the actual study, and review it on my blog, when time permits.
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md 8:34PM (1/03/2006)
"Bottom line, leave the vehicle alone, the fault is the drivers, most Americans need to be truly educated in driving before getting a license."
Couldn't have said it better myself! Maybe if we stop blaming vehicles and start blaming drivers more people would push for stricter driving laws. Instead of saying "SUV kills three on I-95" in the news reports we should say "Complete F*cktard who doesn't know how to control 2 tons of steel kills three people on I-95"
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Josh 11:05AM (1/04/2006)
Just like any study, the results can be skewed one way or the other to match the opinions of those conducting the study. If a group who believes that SUV's are dangerous and dislikes them decides to conduct a study to prove their point, there is a good chance that, whether intentional or not, data that conforms to their beliefs will be given extra weight, while data that disproves or is not in line with their opinions will be given less weight or negated all together.
To try and extrapolate the data in a study like this to a real life situation might be far-fetched, I'd like to see how it was done.
This is why when looking at any study conducted by any group it is crucial to see not only who performed the study and their motives, but also how data was collected and used.
Most of the time it can be hard to find this kind of info, and for good reason, these groups do not want you to know how these conclusions were made. If everything was laid out for you one could pick apart the study and see through it for what it truly is. It is much easier, convincing, and it sounds better for them to just say "SUV's no more safe than cars" rather then "SUV's no more safe then cars when variables X, Y, and Z take place" which is what it should say to be truthful with its intended audience.
I just take these studies with a grain of salt, most are easy to see through just by looking at who conducted them.
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Ryan 12:10PM (1/04/2006)
It seems kind of arrogant to assume none of you will ever be in a wreck, knock on wood there hoss.
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Josh 3:20PM (1/04/2006)
it seems kind of arrogant for YOU to assume that I have never been in a wreck. Besides that, what does that silly comment have to do with anything?
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