SUVs no safer for kids than passenger cars.Children in 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. (SUVs) are just as likely as children in passenger ears to be injured in an accident, despite the SUVs' greater weight, a study finds. Scientists analyzed accidents in 16 states and the District of Columbia District of Columbia, federal district (2000 pop. 572,059, a 5.7% decrease in population since the 1990 census), 69 sq mi (179 sq km), on the east bank of the Potomac River, coextensive with the city of Washington, D.C. (the capital of the United States). that involved 3,922 children in SUVs or passenger cars. The vehicles were model-year 1998 or newer. All crashes had been reported to State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. between 2000 and 2003. Researchers also interviewed the drivers of vehicles in which a child suffered an injury requiring treatment, such as a concussion concussion Period of nervous-function impairment that results from relatively mild brain injury, often with no bleeding in the cerebral cortex. It causes brief unconsciousness, followed by mental confusion and physical difficulties. , laceration laceration /lac·er·a·tion/ (las?er-a´shun) 1. the act of tearing. 2. a torn, ragged, mangled wound. lac·er·a·tion n. 1. A jagged wound or cut. 2. , broken limb, or internal-organ injury. For both passenger ears and SUVs, children sustained such injuries in less than 2 percent of the crashes. Heavy vehicles generally fared better in accidents than lighter vehicles did. However, SUVs rolled over more than twice as often as passenger ears did, and roll-over crashes were three times as likely to cause child injuries as were other crashes, the researchers report in the January Pediatrics. SUVs' protection afforded by weight "is undermined by a roll-over tendency," says coauthor Dennis R. Durbin, a physician and epidemiologist at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia is one of the largest and oldest children's hospitals in the world. "CHOP" has been ranked as the best children's hospital in the United States by U.S. News & World Report and Child Magazine in recent years. and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine The University of Pennsylvania's School of Medicine, presently located in the University City section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was the United States's first school of medicine, founded at the College of Philadelphia, as the University was then called. in Philadelphia. Children in cars or SUVs not wearing seat belts were four times as likely to be injured in a crash as belted kids were. Unrestrained children in SUVs that rolled over were 25 times as likely to be injured as were belted-in children, the researchers report.--N.S. |
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