Death by SUV. Part 2 in the "I hate SUV's" series

Before we go into the discussion of safety, let me give a short intro into the difference between passenger cars and SUVs (it should clear up a lot of the safety issues pronto):
Since SUVs are legally "Light Truck Vehicles (LTV)" they dont' have to adhere to the fuel efficiency requirements set for cars (everyone seems to know that and obviously noone has any problems with the fact that this is basically a government subsidy for the car industry). But what most people don't seem to know is that LTV are also exempt from several safety standards set for passenger cars. Cars are built in a so-called unit-body construction which deforms upon impact and so absorbs some of the energy. They have to be light to meet the fuel efficiency standards and safe to meet high safety standards, and so they have fancy and very expensive steel skeletons which are painstakingly engineered, with built-in crumple zones to protect passengers in case of a crash. Compare this to the building of a truck: First you build the rectangular steel frame, heavy and rigid. It absorbs very little energy upon impact but directly transmits it to the impacted vehicle. Then you screw the engine to the front, fix the seats in the middle and put on the body over the top. Not very safe but very cheap. This probably also explains the extremely high profit margin that SUVs mean for the companies. Add to this the dealer markups of $10000 to $15000 and you arrive at their present ridiculous price.
Passenger cars are expected to drive like, well, cars, their owners expect a minimum standard in the handling, suspension and the breaks (though, truth be told, I have driven in an Oldsmobile, and those requirements seem to be awfully low there!). Noone expects the same kind of behaviour in a truck. I mean, it's a truck! What do you expect? Unfortunately people don't realize that their SUVs are trucks.
The dropping numbers of accident fatalities in the last decade has been strongly driven by new safety developments in passenger cars, developments that protected the passenger cabin in case of impact. SUVs not only do not have to live up to the same standards, by their very nature they are actually counteracting a lot of those developments in passenger cars. What good is a car bumper-hood zone that crumples up like a harmonica when a SUV just pushes over the hood or doorpanel and goes directly for the kill? Passenger cabin, I mean.

The main argument you hear when people talk about why they drive a SUV is safety. But even intelligent, educated people who should know better mistake FEELING safe for BEING safe. On these things rests the success of SUVs, because countless studies have shown that SUV are in fact less safe than most passenger cars (excluding the really small ones). But we just can't shake the feeling that in an accident we'll be safer surrounded by 4500 lbs of steel than in anything else (except maybe a tank). It seems in our heart of hearts, we really DO believe that an accident will happen no matter what, and that it's better to be safe than sorry.

So lets now try to demolish the individual safety claims:

First to be mentioned needs to be the dreaded rollover. It is true, as accidents happen it isn't very common (for every 100,000 vehicles there were 91 passenger car rollovers but a whooping 225 SUV rollovers) but boy, do those rollovers influence the fatality statistics: 22% of all fatalities in passenger cars involve rollovers. More than 60% of all people who died in a SUV did so in a rollover, and for pickups it is still an impressive 40% of all deaths. You're increasing your chance tremendously of dying in a rollover - that is the price you pay for sitting high and mighty over everyone else in the road, feeling invincible. There is some poetic justice here.

Then there is the claim that somehow SUVs are inherently safer than passenger cars. This one probably stems from the feeling of invincibility one gets by being surrounded by tons of steel. Unfortunately it isn't true. For starters, when you're driving a vehicle that weighs 2 tons and more and you suddenly have to break for an emergency situation, you have to get those 2 tons to stop, and momentum isn't lost that easily. Since SUVs are heavier than cars, the stopping distance (SD) in SUVs is consistently longer than in passenger cars. Surprisingly enough though it isn't only weight and momentum that influence it but also engineering: If you compare the SD of top of the line (and by definition rather heavy) passenger cars to the lighter variety of SUV, you'll find that the longer breaking distance is inherent in SUVs - or in other words, their breaks just aren't up to the job:
Mercedes Benz CL500 at 4114 lb with 119 ft SD ,
Lincoln Town Car Cartier at 4121 lb with 135 ft SD
Infinity Q45 at 4007 lb with 137 ft SD

Toyota 4Runner Ltd V6 4WD at 3975 lb with 138 ft SD (best of the SUVs) Ford Explorer Ltd 4WD at 4113 lb with 148 ft SD
Isuzu Rodeo LS 4WD at 4104 lb with 154 ft SD

Put simply, in a SUV you are a risk squared, a increased danger to yourself and others: it will take you longer to stop when needed because you are not only heavier than most other vehicles on the road but also because your breaks aren't as good as the ones in passenger cars.

And don't count on walking away from an accident just because you were in a SUV. Remember what I said about how trucks are built, with a rigid steel frame? SUV drivers don't look so good after frontal crash accidents. Not one of the SUV Modell 2000 got a five star rating from the NHTSA, they got 4 or even only 3 stars, meaning that you have a 11 to 35% risk of serious injury to head and chest for both driver and passenger. There are other studies that strongly suggest that in most types of accidents, you're more likely to be injured in an SUV than in a passenger car.

And to add insult to injury, in your SUV you have a better chance of getting into an accident in the first place! They aren't as maneuverable as passenger cars (once again, that's not what trucks are designed for) and swerving on the freeway is going to show that one up very badly. If I didn't drive a compact car myself I'd positively gloat on all those bad news about SUVs.

Because there actually is ONE type of accident where driving a SUV is a lot safer than driving a passenger car (and this is the ONLY type of accident where being in a SUV is less dangerous): Crashes between a passenger car and a SUV.
Unfortunately, they happen more often than statistically expected. While only a third of the registered cars in the US are SUVs, collisions with them account for about half in all fatalities of light vehicle crashes, with 60% of those fatalities occuring when the striking vehicle is a SUV. So I guess, on top of everything else, SUV drivers are also bad drivers that get into more accidents. How else do I explain this?

Now, what makes me completely furious about the "safety" argument used by many SUV owner as the reason for having one of those monsters is the simple fact that it works only on the most selfish, the-only-thing-that-matters-is-myself level imaginable. Anyone who buys a big Ford Explorer or the like knows for a fact who is going to pay in case of an accident. Not them, as far as they know. Better be a killer than a statistic. And obviously that is perfectly all right. So what if a few suckers in their small cars bite the dust if I run into them? There doesn't seem to be the slightest bit of shame in anyone driving those gigantic SUVs while blinding traffic around them. THEY will be safe. If others die, so be it.

The really sick thing is that this isn't even necessary. If you absolutely need a bigger car for the family, there are hatchback sedans and, if necessary minivans (who are very thouroughly engineered and are actually far, far safer than SUVs of pickups, even for the cars around them). If you'd get into an accident then, at least everyone involved would have a chance to walk away from it. In your SUV, you take this chance away from others.