Sport utility vehicles are becoming less prone to roll over as automakers redesign them to be more stable, US federal regulators said on Wednesday in a new report.
Rollovers have been an Achilles' heel for SUVs because they ride higher off the ground than cars do, making them less stable and at more risk of a rollover, one of the deadliest kinds of accidents.
But the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Wednesday that many newer model SUVs have substantially improved in the government's rollover ratings.
When the agency started issuing rollover ratings five years ago, only one SUV, General Motors' Pontiac Aztek, earned four out of five stars.
In the rollover ratings for the 2005-model year, released on Wednesday, 24 SUVs earned four-star ratings. As often happens when the government comes out with a new auto safety test, automakers have redesigned their vehicles to try to achieve higher grades. And public awareness of the rollover issue has increased considerably in the years since the rollover problems in the late 1990s in Ford Explorers with Firestone tires.
Many new SUVs are lower, wider and more carlike in their handling and engineering. Some are also equipped with a new technology called electronic stability control that helps drivers regain control of vehicles when they swerve.
"It is encouraging to see the positive impact our rollover rating program has had on making vehicles more stable, particularly on SUVs," said Jeffrey Runge, the agency's administrator.
Consumer groups, however, criticized the government for grade inflation because recent changes in the way the ratings are assigned led to higher ratings for some vehicles. And critics point out that even vehicles that tip up on two wheels during the government's track testing can earn four out of five stars.
No vehicle actually rolls over in the track tests, because they are equipped with metal wings called outriggers to prevent rollovers. But after a vehicle tips up, track testing is halted.
"No vehicle that tips up should get a four-star rating," said Joan Claybrook, the president of the consumer group Public Citizen and one of Runge's predecessors.
Claybrook is backing language in a large highway financing bill in Congress that would require that vehicles pass a minimum performance standard for rollovers and that rollover ratings be posted on the window stickers of new cars and trucks.
The government also released its full rankings of the relative rollover risk of 2005-model vehicles. The Ford Explorer Sport Trac, a pickup truck version of the Explorer, remains the vehicle with the highest rollover risk.
The government said its analysis projected that in a single-vehicle crash, like swerving off the road, the Sport Trac's chance of rolling over is as high as 34 percent, depending how it is equipped.
At the other end of the spectrum are two Mazdas: the Miata and the RX-8 sports car, with rollover risks as low as 7 percent.
Although rollovers occur in only about 3 percent of collisions, they account for about a third of all vehicle deaths, or more than 10,000 lives each year. While only 6 percent of car occupants injured in collisions were in rollovers, 20 percent of SUV occupants injured in collisions were in rollovers.
The most recent fatality rate data from the government showed that in 2003, there were 16.42 deaths of SUV occupants in accidents for every 100,000 registered SUVs. The figure for cars was 14.85 deaths for each 100,000 registered.
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