Institute: new SUV designs decrease automobile passenger crash deaths. (Property/Casualty: Loss/Risk Management Notes).Even though sport utility vehicles This page lists sports utility vehicles currently in production (as of April 2007), as well as past models. The list includes crossover SUVs, Mini SUVs, Compact SUVs and other similar vehicles. may have adjusted their designs to perform better on industry crash tests, that hasn't caused them to become more deadly to passengers in cars, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety is a U.S. non-profit organization funded by auto insurers. It works to reduce the number of motor vehicle crashes, and the rate of injuries and amount of property damage in the crashes that still occur. said. In a hearing before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, lawmakers considered a story in USA Today USA Today National U.S. daily general-interest newspaper, the first of its kind. Launched in 1982 by Allen Neuharth, head of the Gannett newspaper chain, it reached a circulation of one million within a year and surpassed two million in the 1990s. which said that to perform better on the institute's crash tests, SUV makers had made the front ends of the vehicles "so stiff that they might be more dangerous to those riding in small cars." The story is incorrect, said Russ Rader, a spokesman for the institute. First, it's not the front ends that have been made stiffer, but the occupant occupant n. 1) someone living in a residence or using premises, as a tenant or owner. 2) a person who takes possession of real property or a thing which has no known owner, intending to gain ownership. (See: occupancy) compartments. In fact, the front ends are designed to be more "crushable" to absorb the impact of a crash. As manufacturers redesigned their vehicles to perform better in the crash tests, the death rate in crashes between SUVs and cars has decreased, not increased, Rader said. "But we are definitely concerned about collisions between cars and SUVs and pick-ups," Rader said. The real issue, Rader said, is the size mismatch mismatch 1. in blood transfusions and transplantation immunology, an incompatibility between potential donor and recipient. 2. one or more nucleotides in one of the double strands in a nucleic acid molecule without complementary nucleotides in the same position on the other between cars and SUVs, which is especially evident when an SUV collides into the side of a car. The problem is caused by the difference in the height of the frames, not the "stiffness" of the frames, Rader said. The institute has begun testing new side impact crashworthiness Crashworthiness is the ability of a structure to protect its occupants during an impact. This is commonly tested when investigating the safety of vehicles. Depending on the nature of the impact and the vehicle involved, different criteria are used to determine the , which is intended to gauge how well vehicles protect side occupants when struck by pickups and SUVs. |
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