Rapid Responses to:

LETTERS: Ediriweera B R Desapriya and Ian Pike Sports utility vehicles and older pedestrians: Achieving compatibility in motor vehicle crashes BMJ 2005; 331: 966-e-967-e [Full text]

Rapid Responses: Submit a response to this article

Rapid Responses published:

Design changes reduces SUVs aggressiveness with crash partners

Ediriweera Desapriya, Dr. Ian Pike   (4 February 2006)

Design changes reduces SUVs aggressiveness with crash partners 4 February 2006
Ediriweera Desapriya, Research Associate Department of Pediatrics, Centre for Community Child Health Research 4480 Oak Street V6H 3V4, Dr. Ian Pike Send response to journal: Re: Design changes reduces SUVs aggressiveness with crash partners	Design changes that automakers adapted recently to the light truck vehicles have sharply reduced the number of deaths among drivers of cars struck by a sport utility vehicle (SUVs) or pickup, according to results from the recent study published by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) (1). The study compared the death rate of car drivers struck by trucks and SUVs that meet the new safety standards with trucks and SUVs that do not. Researchers looked at two types of collisions: (1) front to front, when the vehicles collided head on, and (2) front to side, when the SUVs or pickup struck the side of a car. The study found the risk of death for a car driver when struck from the side by SUVs declined 47 to 48 percent when the SUVs was lowered or had an impact-absorbing bar underneath the bumper. In front-end collisions between a SUVs and a car, the study found that car drivers were 18 to 21 percent less likely to die when the SUVs complied with the standards and the driver was wearing a seat belt. The study found that drivers of cars struck in the side by pickups were up to 9 percent less likely to die when the pickup was designed according to the new standards. When a pickup and a car were in a head-on collision, the number of deaths fell by as much as 19 percent for belted car drivers. The study, by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, using data from the auto industry and the federal government, found that in side- impact collisions the number of deaths fell by nearly half when automakers lowered SUVs by as little as half an inch or equipped them with hollow impact-absorbing bars below the front and rear bumpers. The changes are intended to reduce the frequency of SUVs and pickups' sliding over cars' doorsills and bumpers and piercing deep into cars' passenger compartments. The changes also reduced by a fifth the risk that SUVs would kill a belted car driver in a frontal collision (1). We believe that the SUVs design modifications and structural changes will reduce the severity of pedestrian injuries as well. Reference: O’Neill, B., Baker, B.C., Crash compatibility between cars and light trucks: assessment of benefits of matching front end energy absorbing structures. Status Report 2006 (41) 1; 1-3 Competing interests: None declared