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February 03, 2006
SUV DESIGN CHANGES SAID TO CUT FATALITIES
A New York Times article reports on new findings by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety that “design changes that automakers initially resisted and then reluctantly adopted have sharply reduced the number of deaths among drivers of cars struck by a sport utility vehicle or pickup.”
According to the paper, the IIHS study, using data from the auto industry and the federal government, found that in side-impact collisions the number of deaths fell by nearly half when automakers lowered S.U.V.'s by as little as half an inch or equipped them with hollow impact-absorbing bars below the front and rear bumpers.
“The changes are intended to reduce the frequency of S.U.V.'s and pickups' sliding over cars' doorsills and bumpers and piercing deep into cars' passenger compartments. The changes also reduced by a fifth the risk that an S.U.V. would kill a belted car driver in a frontal collision. The same changes in pickups produced smaller but still significant safety gains. Not since the air bag has a safety standard been so effective in saving lives, experts say,” according to the Times article.
Posted by MVHAP at February 3, 2006 11:11 AM