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SUV's unsafe reputation undeserved, says research

10.54 THURSDAY JULY 24, 2008

Academics have investigated thousands of injury crashes to try to answer that often debated motoring question of whether sport utility vehicles (SUVs) are safe or not.

"Previous research has shown some clear negatives about SUVs in terms of safety, but they are not as unsafe as many people make out," said public health researcher Michael Keall.

The University of Otago Wellington academic and researchers from Melbourne's Monash University Accident Research Centre investigated 17,245 injury-related crashes involving passenger vehicles in New Zealand in 2005 and 2006 and published the results in the international journal Accident Analysis and Prevention.

They found that SUVs are not generally dangerous, possibly because of the way they are driven, and the people who own them.

But their safety record is compromised by three factors.

"The first factor is that they are dangerous in the hands of young drivers, probably because of their inexperience as drivers and the instability of 4WDs," Dr Keall said.

They are more prone to rollover crashes, which lead to particularly severe injuries for drivers and passengers.

Thirdly, they are more dangerous to pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists and others who are harmed by the high bonnets and rigid structures.

"This means that if you are looking for a really safe vehicle for you and other road users, you wouldn't generally choose a SUV as it is not the best vehicle on the road in terms of overall road safety."

But SUVs are less involved in accidents because of how they are driven and how they are used.

Sports cars have the worst safety record of all vehicles probably because drivers tend to take additional risk when provided with high levels of performance and acceleration.

The research was funded by Land Transport New Zealand, the New Zealand Automobile Association, Road Traffic Authority of NSW, Royal Automobile Club of Victoria Ltd, NRMA Ltd, VicRoads, Royal Automobile Club of Western Australia Ltd, Transport Accident Commission, the Road Safety Council of Western Australia and by a grant from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.

- NZPA

www.nzherald.co.nz/section/9/story.cfm?c_id=9&objectid=10523408

SUVs score more safe points in new research

5:00AM FRIDAY JULY 25, 2008

BY MATHEW DEARNALEY

Crash researchers have found lumbering SUVs to be less dangerous than previously thought, despite their potential to cause more mayhem than smaller vehicles.

But that is not to say the beasts have received an unqualified safety tick.

They are still considered dangerous in the hands of young drivers, vulnerable to roll-over crashes carrying high risks of serious head injuries to their occupants, and a threat to other road users such as pedestrians and cyclists likely to be harmed by their high bonnets and rigid structures.

Even so, public health research leader Michael Keall of Otago University's Wellington campus admits surprise at results of an assessment of almost 24,000 vehicles involved in injury crashes in 2005 and 2006.

Not only were below-average crash rates found for SUVs of all sizes, but the best results were recorded in the heaviest of their three categories, those weighing more than two tonnes.

Large SUVs had an overall injury crash rate of just 0.57 per cent compared with an average of 0.8 per cent across 11 vehicle categories. The highest was 0.98 per cent for sports cars.

"It's an interesting result and I was expecting to find 4WDs were rather more dangerous," Dr Keall said yesterday. "Previous research has shown some clear negatives about SUVs in terms of safety, but they are not as unsafe as many people make out."

Dr Keall, assisted by researchers from Monash University in Melbourne with funds from organisations including Land Transport NZ and the Automobile Association, said that was possibly because of how they were being driven and who owned them.

His team's research paper, published in Accident Analysis and Prevention, found only one teenager among owners of the 304 large SUVs involved in injury crashes in the survey.

The paper says SUVs are clearly a safety concern, but only once a collision occurs. It points to previous research showing how SUVs can be "highly damaging" in collisions with cars, given their overall mass, the stiffness of their front sections and their high centre of gravity.

Such factors are listed as a recipe for high "aggressivity" - meaning a greater likelihood of inflicting serious injury or death on other drivers.

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