Any links to prove that?
I am NOT trying to start an argument. But Am just wondering if it is on of those "statistics" that you can make say whatever you want.
IE: could it be because their are more cars on the road? and that people who drive cars (IMO) are a little more cautious than those in a 4x4 that think they are invincible in the winter?
I too feel safer in my truck. And wouldnt it depend on WHAT car is being driven too?
I just did a bit of reading on this. Certainly not comprehensive.
It depends on whose numbers you read. :laughing:
It seems that one is afer in a heavier vehicle, truck, SUV, when in a collision with a car. Since I worry about idiots hitting me this is a concern. On the other hand, trucks DO have higher rates but that appears to be because they are driving on rural roads. Rural roads have higher accident rates which leads to more KIA/WIA. This has nothing to do with vehicle safety. One study I was reading looked at sports cars as a separate category because the rates were so high compared to other vehicles. Certainly sports cars are small or mid size but is that why they have a higher rate or is it driver behavior? Me thinks driver behavior.
As I was reading, I was wondering about SUV injury/fatality numbers. With the exception of the itty bitty SUVs, SUVs can and do carry more people. If one gets in a wreck there will be more WIA/KIA compared to a cars that at best could hold four people. That obviously affects the numbers and is not a great indicator of vehicle safety.
Regarding behavior. Do SUV and truck occupants wear seat belts at a LOWER rate than car drivers? One study I read said that pick up occupants were
25% less likely to wear a belt than other vehicle occupants. SUV and cars were about a 85% usage rate while minivans were a tad higher at 87%. This matters. I want to know the KIA/WIA rate for a truck driver who wears a seat belt. If the occupants were not wearing a seat belt, then the numbers are not applicable to me. Minivans have lower rates that appears to because of driver behavior, ie, the driver is worried about the safety of their kids. SUV and truck drivers certainly can drive more aggressively than road conditions warrant especially in the rain, snow and ice. But that is a driver behavior.
A few years ago a Suburban got in a roll over accident. There were something like 6-8 people in the SUV. Everyone was fine but the driver. He died because he was not wearing a belt. Everyone else was wearing and were ok. I think it was this past winter that a Ford SUV was traveling on I95 with a bunch of people on board. They were driving from FLA back to NY with three generations in the car, kids to grandma. A mother was driving, I think she was belted in, but her mother, the grandmother, was not. The SUV blew a tire and rolled. The grandmother died and I think the driver, the mother, did as well. I wondered if the unbelted grandmother killed her belted in daughter. Everyone else survived per the last report I read.
I bring up both of those accidents because large numbers of people were in the accident because they were SUV's hauling lots of people. The Suburban was hit by another car. The car was at fault and the Ford sounds like it was a tire failure that might have been caused by overloading and/or not enough tire pressure. I was surprised at how many people were in the Ford when I first read the report. If overloading and improper air pressure was at fault, that does not to say that the Ford SUV is/was a more dangerous vehicle. In both case, the large number of people in the SUVs would have driven up the rates regardless of why the accident happened.
SUVs and trucks have one major failing and that is roll overs. There are some active control systems that seem to help with roll overs in one SUV I read about so the problem may be somewhat fixable. On the other hand, if a vehicle has higher ground clearance as a design point it seems that it will always roll over more than a much lower vehicle. The active control system that work seems to also say that roll overs are preventable by the driver at some level. Which gets right back to behavior.
We were in an accident a few years ago when a car hit us on the drivers side. Both cars were the same weight but we had an energy advantage. Our itty bitty SUV was totaled and could not be driven. The other car I am sure was totaled due to front end damage and air bag deployment. The other car was knocked 180 degrees and we went through the intersection until we stopped. If we had been in my truck, I think we would have been able to drive and the truck would have been damaged but fixable. More importantly, my wifey would not have been injured like she was in the itty bitty SUV. Since the other person hit us, the extra mass in the truck would likely have absorbed the hit with much less damage to my wifey. She now has a large SUV with more air bags than a bounce house. :laughing:
Occupant behavior is very important and I don't know how to tell from most study's how to account for that behavior.
Later,
Dan
