SUVs & The Big Lie(s)

Ending the Myths of a 15-year Smear Campaign

WASHINGTON, Jan. 19 -- The following is being issued SUV Owners of America:

  What:    The Detroit News published an op-ed today from SUV Owners of
           America's President Barry McCahill detailing the persistent
           disinformation campaign by zealots to convince Americans that
           driving an SUV is self-indulgent, shameful hedonism.  Worse, many
           of these self-appointed experts would have you believe that SUVs
           are ATMs for Al Qaeda terrorists, bankrolling their attacks on
           our way of life.  From the first Gulf War when "gas-guzzlers"
           came under attack to the recent safety assault on SUVs, anti-SUV
           rhetoric has been ever-present over the last 15 years.

           And the effort to give Americans guilt-trips about their SUVs is
           not likely to go away anytime soon.  Already 2006 has seen its
           first anti-SUV hit job:  A widely reported study indicating that
           children are no more safe in an SUV than in a car.  While this
           study received overwhelming coverage, a more comprehensive
           government study of fatal crashes concluded that children are at
           least twice as safe in SUVs than in cars went unreported.

  Who:     SUV Owners of America -- a non-profit education group supporting
           the rights of millions of Americans who own "light trucks."

           SUVOA spokespeople available to discuss the above issues and why
           most of what people think about SUVs is wrong.

Link to Detroit News Op-Ed: detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060119/OPINION01/601190320/1008

Link to NHTSA study NHTSA study. The abstract and conclusion in the first couple pages only breaks down the data as LTVs (light trucks and vans) versus cars but the body of the study breaks it down further into passenger cars, SUVs, vans and pickups.

http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/nrd-30/NCSA/Rpts/2005/809784.pdf

Link to Insurance Institute for Highway Safety data that shows for almost every model year since 1992 SUVs have had lower fatality rates than passenger cars. "Since 1978, the rates of driver and occupant deaths per million registered vehicles have declined across all passenger vehicle types. Declines in death rates have been largest for SUV occupants."

http://www.hwysafety.org/research/fatality_facts/occupants.html#sec3