CRASH EXPOSURE AND CRASHWORTHINESS OF SPORT UTILITY VEHICLES. IN: OCCUPANT AND VEHICLE RESPONSES IN ROLLOVERS

This chapter, from a comprehensive textbook on occupant and vehicle responses in rollovers, examines the crash involvement and occupant safety record of sport utility vehicles (SUVs), in comparison with those of cars, vans, and pickups. The investigation is based on the crash experience of the cited vehicles on U.S. roads from 1988 to 1996, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's National Automotive Sampling System/Crashworthiness Data System (NASS/CDS) and Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS). In comparison with passenger car occupants, SUV occupants are exposed to significantly lower crash severities in planar crashes and they are younger. SUV occupants are under-represented in crashes with other vehicles, but they are more frequently exposed to rollovers. The authors use the rate of seriously or fatally injured occupants per 100 involved in tow-away crashes to assess the relative injury risk for different classes of vehicles. Overall injury risks are 1.42 for belted and 5.02 for unbelted occupants. In comparing SUVs and passenger cars, there is no statistical difference in overall injury risks for the combined belted and unbelted populations. However, in the belted population, the injury risks of the SUV occupants are lower than those of passenger car occupants. The belted occupants in SUVs have the overall lowest injury rates of all populations examined.