Big Bad ones

Big Bad Ones

SUVs popularity has increase in the past few years. Drivers of an SUV think that their families are safe on the road by riding on this vehicle. Are SUV buyers thinking about the safety of all? It is safe to say no! SUVs are a threat to drivers and passengers, have the highest rollover rate, and harm the environment. SUVs are a big threat to all of us, we need to make conscience and change things around.

Recent studies show that two thousand people would still be alive if their vehicles had been hit by a heavy car instead of an SUV. (504) In a side-impact collision with an SUV, car occupants are twenty-seven times more likely to die. It makes common sense to think SUVs would cause more damage in an accident because they are heavier than a passenger car. Another factor that makes the SUVs unsafe for other drivers is that SUVs do not have to meet the same safety standards as passengers’ cars. The double standard exists due to the federal rules classifying SUVs like a light truck. Federal rules are less strict, meaning that the occupants of SUVs are not protected by the side-impact crash safety standards like mid size cars is.

There is also evidence that show that sport utility vehicles are more than three times more likely to roll over in a crash than normal passengers’ car. SUVs are heavier and ride higher than regular cars. The high ride contributes to a tendency of SUVs to roll over in accidents. According to NHTSA, SUVs roll over rate in accidents end up in deadly crashes, compared to fifteen percent rollover rate for passengers’ cars. Rollover crashes accounted for fifty-three percent of all SUV occupants’ death in single vehicle crashes in 1996. Only nineteen percent of occupant accidents in passengers’ cars