KraftLaw Newsletter

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety recently completed a study of SUVs and pickup trucks, and found only six seat and head restraint combinations in 44 SUV models earned good ratings for whiplash protection. None of the restraint systems in 15 pickup models posted good marks. Here are some excerpts from the report:

● "Manufacturer advertising often emphasizes the rugged image of SUVs and pickups. However, the institute's evaluations show seats and head restraints in many models wouldn't do a good job of protecting most people in a typical rear impact in everyday commuter traffic," said Adrian Lund, the group's president.

● Seats in only six vehicles -- all SUVs -- earned the highest rating in the IIHS analysis, including the Ford Freestyle, Honda Pilot , Jeep Grand Cherokee, Land Rover LR3, Subaru Forester, and Volvo XC90.

● Seats and head restraints in big SUV sellers like the Ford Explorer, Toyota 4Runner and Chevrolet TrailBlazer rated poor, as did the Chevy Silverado pickup and some seats in the Ford F-150 and Dodge Dakota pickups.

● Neck injuries are the most-common serious injuries reported in U.S. car crashes, accounting for 2 million insurance claims totaling at least $8.5 billion annually, the insurance group said.

Our law firm has represented hundreds clients who were injured in vehicle collisions while driving or riding in Sport Utility Vehicles. Unfortunately, many of those injury victims were children. The trend in recent years is for parents to purchase SUVs because the parents feel they and their children are safer in these larger vehicles in the event of a collision. However, a new study shows this belief may not be true.

The medical journal Pediatrics has an article in its January edition that states children are no safer riding in sport utility vehicles than in passenger cars, largely because the doubled risk of rollovers in SUVs cancels out the safety advantages of their greater size and weight.

Researchers said the findings dispel the bigger-equals-safer myth that has helped fuel the growing popularity of SUVs among families. SUV registrations climbed 250 percent in the U.S. between 1995 and 2002.

The study was sponsored by Partners for Child Passenger Safety, a research project of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the world's largest insurer, State Farm Insurance Company. The researchers looked at accidents involving nearly 4,000 children under age 16 between 2000 and 2003, and found child injury rates of 1.7 percent in both cars and SUVs.

The study found that the extra weight of SUVs enhanced safety, reducing the risk of injury by more than a third. But that was offset by findings that SUVs were more than twice as likely as cars to roll over in crashes. Children in rollovers were three times more likely to be seriously injured than those in non-rollover accidents, according to the study.

Here is the conclusion of this important study: "Despite the greater vehicle weight of SUVs, the risk of injury for children in SUVs is similar to that for children in passenger cars. The potential advantage offered by heavier SUVs seems to be offset by other factors, including an increased tendency to roll over. Age-appropriate child restraint and rear seat positioning are important, particularly for children in SUVs, given the very high risk of injury for children restrained inappropriately in rollover crashes."

Children May Be No Safer In Sport Utility Vehicles