IIHS: SUVs are now safer than cars of similar weight in crashes
According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, SUVs are now safer than cars of the same weight due to anti-rollover technologies pushed by automakers. The agency said in a report that SUVs in the 2006-2009 model years had a driver fatality rate half that of cars.
“The rollover risk in SUVs used to outweigh their size/weight advantage, but that’s no longer the case,” said Anne McCartt, the IIHS’ senior vice president for research. “Pound for pound, SUVs have lower death rates.”
In studying the risk, the study by the IIHS counts the number of years each model has been on U.S. roads and multiplies that by the number of that model’s vehicles. The SUV segment’s driver deaths totaled 28 per million registered vehicle years, compared to 52 for trucks and 56 for cars.
Among all those that were studied, the minivan segment had the lowest driver fatality rate: 25 per million registered vehicle years.
– By: Omar Rana
Source: Detroit News
