An Analysis of Sport Utility Vehicles Involved in Road Accidents

Trends are noticeable that the European car fleet is changing rapidly towards a higher diversity of vehicles on the roads. On the high end of the scale larger and heavier automobiles, such as Multi Purpose Vehicles (MPVs) and Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) take a larger share than before. This paper shows the results from a study done on SUV accidents. The crash involvement and behaviour of SUVs was analysed. The analyses were based on a review of Dutch national statistics and in-depth studies of SUV accidents in the Netherlands and of passenger cars in Europe (the EACS project). Also comparisons were made with actual numbers of vehicle types in the car fleet, so that exposure rates can be included. Accidents of vehicles in the above-described categories were also compared with each other. The national statistics and the in-depth analysis were compared and it was shown that the studies point in the same direction. It can be concluded that SUVs are significantly more aggressive against vulnerable road users. In this study no difference is found between heavy passenger cars and SUVs. SUVs are about as heavy as the average full-size passenger car. So the same mass difference occurs between passenger car classes (e.g. full-size and small cars). Although the bumper height is about 20% higher compared to passenger cars, this difference could not directly be related to an increase in injury severity in this study due to the lack of data.

• Record URL:
  • http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/nrd-01/esv/esv19/05-0370-O.pdf
• 
• Corporate Authors:

  National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Conference:
  • 19th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV)
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2005-6-6 to 2005-6-9
• Publication Date: 2005-6

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 10p
• Monograph Title: Proceedings - 19th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV), Washington, D.C., June 6-9, 2005

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Compact automobiles; Crash data; Crash exposure; Large automobiles; Sport utility vehicles
• Uncontrolled Terms: Bumper height; In-depth accident investigation; Vehicle aggressiveness
• Geographic Terms: Netherlands
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; Vehicles and Equipment; I81: Accident Statistics; I91: Vehicle Design and Safety;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01066422
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 05-0370
• Files: TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Sep 11 2007 2:04PM