by Danny Hakim, New York Times
08/10/04 - For the first time, federal regulators released figures on Monday that show how prone individual models of new cars and light-duty trucks are to roll over in an accident, exposing the occupants to high risk of death or serious injury.
Instead of merely assigning a star rating to each model it tests, as it has done in the past, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released figures that allow consumers to compare rollover risk model by model. The star system, which is continuing, has been criticized for not providing enough information to distinguish among different vehicles, because nearly all received either three or four stars.
Of the 68 new models that the agency tested for the 2004 model year, the Ford Explorer Sport Trac, a cross between a pickup and an SUV, was found to have the highest rollover risk. The agency's tests indicated a 35 percent chance of rolling over during a single-vehicle accident.
That is more than four times the risk of the best performer in this year's tests, a four-door Mazda RX-8 sedan, which was about 8 percent, the agency said. Mazda is an affiliate of the Ford Motor Co., which makes the Explorer.
As expected, cars performed much better than SUVs or pickup trucks in the tests, because cars are not as tall and generally ride closer to the ground, making them more stable. But the new ratings also show wide differences among vehicles of the same type.
For instance, versions of the Chevrolet Silverado pickup, made by General Motors, were judged to have a 16 percent to 18.5 percent risk of rollover, while one version of the Toyota Tacoma pickup was rated as high as 28.3 percent.
"This is a problem that continues to produce about a third of our occupant fatalities every year, even though they are less than 3 percent of our crashes," Jeffrey W. Runge, the administrator of the traffic safety agency, said of rollovers. The new rankings information, he said, "does arm the consumer with a little more sophisticated information."
Gloria Bergquist, a spokeswoman for the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, said, "It's difficult to rate an automobile like you rate a movie. This is just one rating. We urge people to look at all information and make a judgment, including the front impact and the side impact ratings."
The new rollover rankings, along with front and side impact test ratings, are available at www.safercar.gov.
Consumer groups have said the agency needs to do more to get the ratings to the public.
"We compliment the agency on improving its presentation," said Joan Claybrook, the president of Public Citizen. But "significant flaws remain," Claybrook said, noting that the information was still not very easy to find. She said the agency should also establish a minimum performance threshold for rollover risk.
If you believe that you have been injured in a rollover or roof collapse related accident, contact Miller Weisbrod, LLP, for a free case assessment.
