Sports utility vehicles and older pedestrians: Achieving compatibility in motor vehicle crashes

doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7522.966-e

BMJ 2005;331:966-967 (22 October), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7522.966-e

Letter

Sports utility vehicles and older pedestrians

Achieving compatibility in motor vehicle crashes

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—The chief determinants for the degree of severityof injuries in motor vehicle collisions are vehicle size andweight. If all cars were designed to be equal in standard tothe best car currently available in each class, then an estimatedhalf of all fatal and disabling injuries could be avoided.¹

Sports utility vehicles (SUVs) differ from cars in three keyareas: they have greater mass and stiffness and the geometryplaces bumpers above the frames of struck cars, resulting inhigher intrusion when striking smaller cars. Thus the safetydesigns that were effective 10 or 15 years ago are not adequatein today's incompatible vehicle collisions. New technology needsto be developed and implemented.² Although mass affects survivalin crashes, good vehicle geometry and energy absorbing interfacesare important in developing a heavy vehicle that behaves incrashes like the average car.³

Safety standards for front-end construction . . . [Full text of this article]

Ediriweera B R Desapriya, research associate

edesap@cw.bc.ca
Department of Paediatrics—UBC, BC Injury Research and Prevention Unit, Centre for Community Child Health Research, 4480 Oak Street, L 408 Vancouver BC, Canada V6H 3V4

Ian Pike, assistant professor

Department of Paediatrics—UBC, BC Injury Research and Prevention Unit, Centre for Community Child Health Research, 4480 Oak Street, L 408 Vancouver BC, Canada V6H 3V4