David (Car) Has Better Chance Against Goliath (S.U.V.) June 13, 2006
The changes to sport utilities and pickups are being made to prevent them from running over smaller vehicles in a crash. A recent study showed that the modifications, which automakers initially resisted but then agreed to adopt by late 2009, sharply reduced the number of deaths of people in cars struck by these vehicles.
As more Americans buy smaller cars to save money on gas, the danger of collisions between mismatched vehicles is escalating.
“Why should that decision put you in significantly greater jeopardy of being paralyzed or killed when a gigantic S.U.V. slams into you and overwhelms you?” said Byron Bloch, an automotive safety expert who has testified in numerous court cases involving S.U.V. safety.
Automakers agreed in December 2003 to meet the new standards by 2009. Roughly halfway through that period, some companies ? Toyota, in particular ? have made more progress than others.
The new standards require automakers to lower by half an inch to several inches the height at which their vehicles’ front ends hit other vehicles. Sometimes this is done by adding a hollow steel bar below and behind the bumper, and sometimes by adjusting the entire frame of the vehicle so that it rides lower to the ground.
Bumpers play little role in crashes at speeds of more than 5 or 10 miles an hour, crumpling almost instantly, so automakers have had to make bigger changes in vehicle designs.
Automakers say 2006 was the soonest they could incorporate the new standards into many vehicles. Most models that met the guidelines before this year were built low enough to the ground from the outset.
The revamped Toyota RAV4 and Dodge Dakota have lower frames than in past years. Redesigned versions of General Motors’ full-size sport utilities, including the Chevrolet Tahoe and Cadillac Escalade, introduced recently as 2007 models, were lowered and also have so-called compatibility brackets installed on the bottom to prevent them from riding up onto another vehicle.
“If you see the new ones versus the old ones, you can tell that they ride a little lower,” said a G.M. spokesman, Alan Adler.
Almost 4 of every 10 sport utilities and pickups built for the 2005 model year did not comply with the new standards, according to the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. The alliance developed the industry guidelines after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration threatened to impose regulations if nothing were done.
The safety agency, part of the Transportation Department, is still studying whether regulations might be needed, as it is unusual for the agency to let the industry regulate itself on a safety problem that costs more than 1,000 lives a year.
Roughly half the light trucks produced by Detroit’s carmakers ? which sell the most big vehicles ? met the new standards in the 2005 model year. But two of the three best-selling sport utilities ? the Chevrolet TrailBlazer and some versions of the Ford Escape ? did not meet the standards.
Nearly 9 of 10 vehicles in the light truck category sold by Toyota met the standards. All models sold by Honda, Hyundai, Volkswagen and BMW, which offer comparatively few larger vehicles, passed.
For 2006 models, all minivans sold in the United States meet the guidelines. But no full-size, four-wheel-drive pickups do from any manufacturer.
Vehicles that comply with the new guidelines have front ends low enough to strike the bumper or doorsill of a smaller car rather than hitting the car at a higher point and crushing the passenger compartment. Automakers also have the option of installing energy-absorbing beams or brackets under a vehicle to achieve the same goal.
The necessary changes for vehicles that fall short of the standards are scheduled to be made as part of upcoming redesigns. “We’re looking at being about 94 or 95 percent by the 2008 model year,” said Max Gates, a spokesman for the Chrysler Group unit of DaimlerChrysler.
A study earlier this year by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that fatalities in side-impact collisions were cut in half when carmakers lowered sport utilities by as little as half an inch or installed bars underneath. Drivers wearing a seat belt when their car was struck head-on by a light truck that met the new standards were 18 to 21 percent less likely to die, researchers found.
Collisions between an S.U.V., pickup or minivan and a car kill more people than car-to-car collisions, statistics show. When all types of crashes are considered, occupants of sport utilities and pickups actually have a higher death rate than car occupants. This is mainly because sport utilities and pickups are more likely to roll over when they strike another vehicle, a curb or a guard rail, or if they miss a turn or swerve.
Studies also have shown that rear-end crashes involving a large and a small vehicle often cause thousands of dollars in damage, even at slow speeds.
Many automakers say the alterations are usually too costly and difficult to make outside of a full redesign.
“Automakers look at their design cycles to make major changes,” said Chris Tinto, the director of safety regulations for Toyota. “If you’re going to lower the frame rails, that’s a huge change.”
Regulators took notice of the issue after a series of articles in The New York Times in 1997 focused on the dangers of vehicle mismatches.
Mr. Bloch said he wished manufacturers would go further, making trucks smaller, lighter and less stiff.
The Ford Motor Company has installed a hollow bar called the Blocker Beam under many of its larger sport utilities. The device was developed for the large Excursion sport utility in 2000.
Ford has lowered the frame of vehicles such as the Explorer, but the Blocker Beam provides an effective alternative for other models, said James Vondale, director of Ford’s automotive safety office.
In addition to altering the front ends of their sport utilities and pickups, automakers agreed to reduce the hazards those vehicles pose by installing side air bags or better head and neck protection in vehicles of all sizes. At least half of all 2007 models must offer those safety features; a third of 2005 offerings did.
Even after all new vehicles comply with the standards, older models with higher front ends will remain on the road for years.
Some automakers are making additional changes to lessen the danger from those vehicles. Honda’s Advanced Compatibility Engineering program makes the front of smaller vehicles such as the compact Civic better able to absorb the force from a truck in a crash. If a larger vehicle overrides the crumple zones in the front end of a Civic, the car can diffuse energy around the occupants instead of into them.
Automakers have mostly kept quiet about changes they have made to improve safety in crashes. Automakers note that sport utility buyers are not likely to choose a particular model for its benefits to other drivers on the road.
Typically, only car shoppers who have been in a crash with a truck or sport utility ask which vehicles will offer protection in such a collision, said Tyler Kadlec, sales manager at Tom Kadlec Honda in Rochester, Minn. “The majority of buyers just ask about antilock brakes, air bags and crash-test ratings,” he said.
Because the standards are not mandatory and not widely publicized, Joan Claybrook, president of the consumer group Public Citizen, worries that manufacturers will quietly abandon them at some point.
But Charlie Territo, spokesman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, said his members were committed to complying with the new standards beyond the 2009 deadline. “The implementation of this agreement moved much faster than any government regulation could have moved,” he said.
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- Author : arnold
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