Quote:
Originally Posted by Frank Lee
I wonder in how many of those "tire caused crashes" the vehicle was going 80 mph with 15 psi in the tires, with 900 lbs of crap in the back or better yet up on a rooftop carrier? And did the cell phone yappin operator even hear the flap flap flap, or was he/she aware of what that noise was, and did they gently slow down to pull over, or did they slam on the brakes and/or violently overcorrect the steering wheel?
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Still, there's a difference, an obvious difference with what happens if you're driving a Civic at 80mph and get a blow out and what happens with a vehicle with a short wheel base, high center of gravity, and is too narrow by design.
Here's the
facts:
* There will be an estimated 70,000 SUV rollovers in 2002, in which it's estimated 2000 people will die.
* In the 10-year period during which Ford-Firestone related rollovers caused some 300 deaths, more than 12,000 people -- 40 times as many -- died in SUV rollover crashes unrelated to tire failure.
* A Ford Explorer is 16 times as likely as the typical family car to kill occupants of another vehicle in a crash.
* 1 out of 4 new vehicles sold in the U.S. is an SUV, making it the most popular type of vehicle in America. The Ford Explorer is the most popular SUV in the world.
* SUVs had the highest rollover involvement rate of any vehicle type in fatal crashes -- 36 percent, as compared with 24 percent for pickups, 19 percent for vans and 15 percent for traffic cars. SUVs also had the highest rollover rate for passenger vehicles in injury crashes -- 12 percent, as compared to 7 percent for pickups, 4 percent for vans and 3 percent for passenger cars.
While I do have to worry a lot more about the severity of injury due to striking wildlife than the driver of an SUV, you can't ignore the different handling dynamics of SUVs compared to passenger cars.