John F. Banzhaf III Says IIHS Report on SUV's Omits Life-Saving Information
SEE ALSO: Americans Want and Deserve Big Cars and Pickup Trucks
Washington DC, John F. Banzhaf III says that an Insurance Institute for
Highway Safety [IIHS] report that says SUVs are less dangerous in
front- and side-impact crashes to occupants of other vehicles, just as they
recently reported that they are less likely to roll over, failed to
include vital life-saving information buyers should be given, says a public
interest law professor who has successful brought legal actions related to
vehicle safety, and is also an engineer, inventor, and statistician.
The IIHS provides vehicle ratings based upon several different
safety factors, and the federal government provides vehicle safety ratings
based on other tests, but it's very difficult for potential car buyers to
learn the one factor which might be more significant than any one of these,
and most important in selecting a vehicle most likely to protect their
lives and the lives of members of their families.
Unfortunately, in
reporting on an earlier IIHS study, most media outlets ignored what might
be even more important: that drivers of some riskier vehicles are almost 3
times as likely to die in an accident than if driving in the average car,
and that some vehicles are 4 to 5 times more likely to kill their driver
than the average minivan or SUV.
Indeed, the difference between the
most dangerous vehicles and the safest, in terms of driver death rates, can
exceed a ratio of 20 to 1 - a startling fact many buyers might want to know
before making a purchase. http://arlpub1.iihs.org/externaldata/srdata/docs/sr4605.pdf
Those who watch the evening news, or read a daily newspaper, may
now know that SUVs and minivans are somewhat safer than cars or pickups,
but most don't know that some can increase the risk of driver death by as
much as 2000%, depending upon their choice of vehicle," argues Prof. John
Banzhaf of the George Washington University Law School. Unfortunately,
buyers have no ready access to information about which vehicles are much
more likely to kill them or members of their families.
Knowing
generally about a somewhat increased risk often isn't very useful in making
purchasing decisions without knowing something about the magnitude of the
danger, he argues, pointing to the huge number of people who purchased Ford
Explorers and other SUVs earlier in the decade. They may have known
generally that SUVs had a higher rollover rate than ordinary cars, but
probably few knew that the risk of rollovers was 600% to even 1000% higher,
he argues.
The driver of a typical minicar could have three times
the chance of being killed in an accident as the driver of a minivan or
SUV, something purchasers may want to carefully weigh against the small
car's typically better gas mileage and lower exhaust emissions. Otherwise,
they may literally be dying - or risking the lives of loved ones - to save
some money on gas, or to infinitesimally reduce global warming. Indeed,
Banzhaf notes, there are almost a dozen cars where the driver death rate is
at least four times the driver death rate for a typical SUV, and at least
six times higher than the death rate for large SUVs.
Unfortunately,
notes Banzhaf, car buyers who try to get the best available information
about the safety of their prospective purchases by going to the major web
sites on automobile safety will find only generalized information based
upon several different tests, but not the crucial information about actual
driver death rates.
For example, the federal National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) site provides frontal, side and
rollover ratings, but only generalized information in the form of 1 to 5
stars. http://www.safercar.gov/
IIHS has on its web site information about frontal and side crash
tests, roof strength tests and head restraint tests, but classifies them
only as "poor," "marginal," "acceptable"
and "good." http://www.iihs.org/
Ironically, the IIHS's "Top Safety Picks for 2011," the advice it
provides to prospective car purchasers, are based upon these four factors,
but not upon actual driver death rates - which the organization now admits
may be the most important single factor in assessing vehicle safety. http://www.iihs.org/ratings/default.aspx
"Buyers can readily obtain, often in the new-car window sticker,
lots of information about the vehicle's miles per gallon, annual fuel
costs, greenhouse gas rating, smog rating, its rating on several safety
tests, and even the suggested retail price, but almost never are they told
how likely the car is to kill them. Perhaps it's time for automobile
rating sites, and even the federal government, to provide this vital
life-and-death information," argues Banzhaf.
He also suggests that
the IIHS reports recommending that parents consider purchasing an SUV for
their teen drivers, are incomplete and potentially misleading because they
totally overlook another important existing vehicle safety system which is
far more important than ESC because it would slash deaths and injuries from
high-speed crashes - which are much more common than rollovers for teen
drivers.
He argues that IIHS should have told parents following its
advice to purchase an SUV to protect teen drivers that they should reset
the top-speed control in the vehicle's on-board computer from 120-140 mph,
to which it is typically set, to a more realistic 65, 70, or 75 - or
perhaps even only 55 for very young and inexperienced drivers - to slash
the danger of a high-speed accident (a much greater risk than a rollover)
and also to greatly reduce the severity of an accident should it occur. http://pressreleaser.org/suvs-still-not-teen-safe-despite-institute-report-expert/1351393
JOHN F. BANZHAF III,
B.S.E.E., J.D., Sc.D.
Professor of Public Interest Law
George
Washington University Law School,
FAMRI Dr. William Cahan Distinguished
Professor,
Fellow, World Technology Network,
Founder, Action on
Smoking and Health (ASH)
Creator, Banzhaf Index of Voting Power
2000 H Street, NW, Suite S402
Washington, DC 20052, USA
(202)
994-7229 // (703) 527-8418
http://banzhaf.net/