NHTSA Vehicle Crash Tests Contradict Earlier Data

Regulation Policy

NHTSA Vehicle Crash Tests Contradict Earlier Data

Much-maligned sport utility vehicles (SUVs) are no less dangerous than large sedans, according to the latest tests of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Passenger-car occupants are just as likely to escape death or serious injury in crashes with SUVs and light trucks as they are in collisions with large sedans, according to NHTSA data due to be released Tuesday at a vehicle safety conference in Canada.

Opponents of pickup trucks, vans and SUVs -- primarily self-described consumer advocates and environmentalists -- have been mounting a campaign against them based on safety considerations.

Four Honda Accords were used as target vehicles in the tests, while an SUV, pickup truck and minivan were used as the "bullet" vehicles. The results were compared with a collision involving a Chevrolet Lumina passenger car. In tests involving dummy passengers in three side-impact collisions and one frontal collision at 30 miles per hour:

All 24 dummies survived the crashes -- with a "zero probability of death."

For all dummies, "there was less than a 50 percent probability of serious injury in the crashes."

Car-occupant injuries caused by the 3,000 pound pickup and the 3,350 pound Lumina were not substantially different from those caused by the 4,050 pound minivan.

Source: Warren Brown, "Crash Results at Odds With Other Data," Washington Post, May 30, 1998; and Gregory L. White, "Tests Question Whether Light Trucks Are Much Deadlier Than Cars in Crashes," Wall Street Journal, June 1, 1998.

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