終於塵埃落定了：SUV最安全

來源: 祖傳中醫688 於 2011-06-10 09:18:31 [檔案] [博客] [舊帖] [給我悄悄話] 本文已被閱讀：次 (15163 bytes)

Safety Study: SUVs Are Among The Safest Vehicles

By Jonathan Welsh

: Getty Images; Large SUVs move along a General Motors assembly line in Janesville, Wisc.

A report from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety shows a dramatic decrease in death rates for SUV drivers involved in crashes. The main reason appears to be the proliferation of electronic stability control, or ESC, which helps keep vehicles from skidding and is particularly effective at preventing SUVs from rolling over.

The IIHS study finds ESC and other changes in vehicle design have lessened the chance of dying in a crash for drivers of all sorts of passenger vehicles. But the improvement is far more dramatic for SUVs.

Indeed, while SUVs used to have higher death rates than cars when measured on a pound-for-pound basis, they are now among the safest vehicles.

According to IIHS, a safety-research group funded by the insurance industry, the overall driver death rate for 2005 to 2008 model-year vehicles during the period from 2006 to 2009 was 48 per million registered vehicle years. The group conducts death-rate studies every few years and the latest rate is a big decline from years past. The rate for 2001 to 2004 models during the 2002-05study period was 79. It was 87 for 1999-2002 models and 110 for 1989-1993 models.

The group says the relative risk of different types of vehicles also has changed. For 1999-2002 models, the average death rate for SUVs was 82 per million, or about as high as the 88 per million for cars. In the recent study the death rate for SUVs is half that of cars. In the past, the roll-over risk for SUV drivers outweighed the advantage their vehicles had over cars in size and weight. But ESC has changed that, the Insurance Institute says.

Rates for each of the more than 150 vehicles in the study range widely from 0 for several models including the Audi A6 and Mercedes-Benz E-Class sedans, and the Ford Edge crossover; to 119 for the Chevrolet Aver subcompact, 126 for the Nissan Titan crew-cab pickup truck with two-wheel drive and 143 for the Nissan 350Z sports car.

When vehicles are grouped by segment, minivans fare best with a driver death rate of 25. SUVs score 28, pickups average 52 driver deaths per million registration years and cars average 56. But large cars perform better than small ones. Four-door subcompacts, for example, have a death rate of 82 compared with 46 for large four-doors.