Automakers, Safety Advocates Collide Over SUV Roof Safety
By Alison Gonzalez
Published on March 12, 2008
In the study, conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, roofs over the driver’s side of 11 older SUVs were crushed to various heights, while the force needed to crush them was measured and compared to data from 23,000 rollover accidents that occurred between 1997 and 2005 from the same models.
The report found that strengthening an SUV’s roof significantly reduces the risk of injury.
The strongest roof tested, that of the 2002-2004 Nissan Xterra models, reduced the risk of rollover injury by 39-57 percent when compared to the weakest roof tested, which belonged to the 1999-2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee models.
Further, researchers found that if every SUV had a roof that was as strong as the strongest roof tested, 212 of the 668 deaths in those models during 2006 could have been prevented.
But the Alliance of Automobile Manufactures – which includes Toyota Motor Co., General Motors, Ford Motor Co., and Chrysler LLC – said the study was flawed and that changes to roof standards would have little overall effect on reducing the amount of fatalities linked to rollover accidents.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is currently working on a plan to boost roof-crush standards, and has extended the deadline to comment on the new rules to March 27.
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