SUVs, pickups now less deadly to cars

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The sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks on today’s roads are far less deadly in frontal and side-impact collisions with passenger cars and minivans than the SUV and truck models in the past.

A study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that modern SUVs are no more aggressive than modern cars in front-to-front and front-to-side crashes, if the SUVs and cars are of similar weight.

The study found, for example, that the death rate for people in cars or minivans that were hit by SUVs weighing 3,000 to 3,499 pounds declined by 63 percent (from 44 deaths per million in 2000-2001 to 16 in 2008-2009). That was the largest reduction.

When it came to the death rate for people in cars or minivans that were hit by other cars or minivans that weighed 3,000 to 3,499 pounds it was about same (17 deaths per million) as when those cars were hit by SUVs (16 deaths per million). The aggressiveness of pickups also has been reduced, although not by as much as SUVs.

Researchers attribute these improvements to a joint voluntary effort, one that began in 2003 to reduce deaths caused when SUVs and pickups collide with cars. They are proof that the effort is working.

At that time, when it seemed possible that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration would start work on a compatibility standard, a voluntary program was proposed by several groups representing automakers and the IIHS. The thinking was that it might be quicker than having NHTSA develop a regulation.

One issue in frontal crashes was that the higher bumpers of SUVs would ride up and over the lower bumpers of cars in a crash and could hit the windshield of a car. An issue in side-impact crashes between SUVs and cars was that the higher-riding SUV would hit a lower-riding car about where an occupant’s head was positioned.

The voluntary agreement contained two major measures. One, automakers would redesign the front ends of SUVs and pickup trucks so that they would better match up with the front ends of cars. This would make them less likely to ride up and over a car’s bumper and would improve the way their front ends aligned to better absorb crash energy in frontal crashes.

Secondly, cars and minivans would need to do a better job of protecting heads in side-impact crashes. This was accomplished through stronger structures and by making side airbags that protected the head standard equipment. The changes were to be phased in, with the final deadline being Sept. 1, 2009.

None of these results, however, contradict the basic laws of physics in a crash, warned Joe Nolan, the insurance institute’s chief administrative officer and the study’s co-author. Vehicles with a lot of mass are still a problem in crashes with other vehicles that don’t have as much mass, Nolan said.

“The good news is that SUVs and pickups are more geometrically compatible with all cars, and that helps. In the past you had both a geometry mismatch and a mass mismatch, leading to a pretty bad problem,” he said.

One view to take is that the problem is now not as bad. The picture could conceivably look better in future studies because this one was done before there was full compliance with the guidelines.

The study included vehicles that could be as old as 2004 models. At that time only 54 percent of vehicles met the front compatibility requirements and only 24 percent had standard head-protecting side airbags. For more information about the study, go to iihs.org.