U.S. Regulators Release Vehicle Rollover Data
By DANNY HAKIM
Published: August 10, 2004
For the first time, federal regulators released figures yesterday that show how prone individual models of new cars and light-duty trucks are to roll over in an accident, exposing the occupants to high risk of death or serious injury.
Instead of merely assigning a star rating to each model it tests, as it has done in the past, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released figures that allow consumers to compare rollover risk model by model. The star system, which is continuing, has been criticized for not providing enough information to distinguish among vehicles, because nearly all received three or four stars.
Of the 68 models the agency tested for the 2004 model year, the Ford Explorer Sport Trac, a cross between a pickup and a sport utility vehicle, was found to have the highest rollover risk. The agency's tests indicated a 35 percent chance of rolling over during a single-vehicle accident....
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As expected, cars performed much better than S.U.V.'s or pickup trucks in the tests, because cars are not as tall and generally ride closer to the ground, making them more stable. But the new ratings also show wide differences among vehicles of the same type....
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The government rollover tests began this year at the direction of Congress, which ordered the agency to develop a track test in the wake of a series of fatal rollover crashes in the late 1990's involving Ford Explorers equipped with Firestone tires....
(NOTE: "The new rollover rankings, along with front and side impact test ratings, are available at the safety agency's Web site, www.safercar.gov.")
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/10/business/10auto.html
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