Just to start off, I don't have any agenda behind this post, I do not have stock with the Honda Motor Corp. or any other company, and I'm not insisting on everyone running out and buying a new smaller car. I just wanted to post this info here, as I felt it's relevent to the discussion of SUVs vs. compact cars. Earlier this year I wrote a report for my college on how I feel SUVs should be banned from the roadways. I don't have all my sources still listed, but this info is still fresh in my head. If you don't believe me, or want clarification I can try to find my paper and find my sources, but most of this is common sense, or can be found by a simple Google search
So here goes...
For those of you debating the SUV vs. Econobox safety issues, there are several key points you're all overlooking or not mentioning. First of all, most of the fatal accidents that occur involving motor vehicles are single car collisions (ie. skidding off the road into a ditch, hitting a tree, telephone post, etc) where having a 6000lb chunk of metal around you is not going to do any more help than a 3000lb chunk would. More so, most of the single car collisions are involving SUVs. Their large mass, high center of gravity, large tires, and poor overall design (when compared to cars or vans) all lead to being less able to stop before, manuver away from, or otherwise avoid a crash, and are therefore more susceptible to the laws of physics than safety features can provide. The next most common collision is the rear or side impact, where once again, having the ability to manuever or avoid an impact is severely reduced by driving an SUV. The least common of all accidents is the head-on crash, yet this is the reason most people buy large vehicles. Taking two objects of different masses, and smacking them into each other will result in the smaller object taking more damage than the larger object, but then again, the head-on crash is a very rare occurrence, and usually takes place at lower speeds, not highway speeds.
The most dangerous part of driving an SUV, however, isn't the clumsiness of it's handling or it's inability to avoid a collision, it's the high center of gravity that leads to rollover accidents. As I mentioned before, the most common collision is a single car crash, and when a vehicle goes off the side of the road, it has a high risk of rolling over. This is usually where most injuries and deaths occur in automotive collisions. Most cars and vans are lower to the ground and provide a lower center of gravity compared to SUVs. That means that a car or van involved in a single car collision is less likely to roll, and safer for the occupants. I can't say this as a fact though, as there are way too many variables with modern automotive engineering and safety equipment. We don't have the same designs of the 50s and 60s where more car = safety. That's why you can see so many different results from crash testing. However, a particular car that has similar design standards to a particular SUV (ie not 2007 Mercedes SUV vs. 1994 Chevy Cavalier) will be safer in a single car collision, and rollover avoidance.
Over the years, as the popularity of SUVs has increased (most notably in the 90s and more recently) and more SUVs have taken to the roadways, the number of automotive related fatalities has increased in a similar fashion. More SUVs = more deaths.
-More than four in ten Americans think they are safer in a sport utility vehicle (SUV) than in a regular car. (National Consumer Survey, Opinion Research Corporation, January 2005)
-In 2006 SUVs had the highest occupant fatality rate of any vehicle type in rollover crashes at 7.77 per 100,000 registered vehicles. This compares with 6.98 for pickup trucks, 3.10 for vans and 3.18 for passenger cars. (Insurance Information Institute)
-8,062 SUV occupants died in 2006. (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Highway Loss Data Institute)
Increase In SUV Rollover Deaths Prompts Call for Passage of Safety Provisions
SUV Deaths Up, Other Highway Deaths Down
(check out the National Highway Traffic Safety Association's website, and check out some of their reports. Namely "2007 Traffic Safety Annual Assessment -- Highlights" and
Latest Releases | National Highway Traffic Safety Administration(NHTSA) | U.S. Department of Transportation
Now that I'm through with my babbling, and I'm going to step down from my soapbox
I'd like to include a personal note. I've crashed two cars in the past 3 years, a 2005 Chevrolet Maibu, and a 2004 Prius. I walked away from both accidents, and both times the cars were claimed as totaled. If I had been driving an SUV where I totaled my Malibu, I know I would have wound up in the hospital, there's no question about it. I was beaten up pretty bad, but it would have rolled for sure (and this spot is definatly not a place you would want to roll a vehicle
). When I crashed the Prius it actually rolled 3 times, but it's only because the car was sliding perfectly sideways before it even left the road, and the way the ditch was shaped made it flip over. Surprisingly though, the rollover felt rather smooth, and wasn't as scary as I thought rolling a car would be. I know had I been driving an SUV, with how large and boxy they are, the roll would have been much more violent and I don't think my fiance or I would have walked away from it. I now drive a Honda Civic day-to-day. My mother has an Explorer, and my brother just bought a Cadillac Escalade, and I don't feel safe whatsoever driving either one of them.
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