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Re: In defense of SUVs
Posted By: Ellmyruh, on host 130.86.253.240
Date: Friday, June 1, 2001, at 17:09:24
In Reply To: Re: In defense of SUVs posted by gabby on Friday, June 1, 2001, at 16:15:46:

> Do a search for "SUV fatality rate," or something similar. There's huge amounts of data available. The rest of this post is a clip from an article, for which a link is provided below.
>
> "According to accident data compiled by the federal government's Fatal Accident Reporting System (FARS), Explorers are not only safer overall than other comparable SUVs -- but safer than most cars.

I was staying out of this discussion until I saw this post. You simply cannot base an argument on one article found on the Internet that may or may not have a slant to it. Furthermore, you can't cite one type of product (in this case, the Ford Explorer) and use that as your evidence. I assume your family owns a Ford Explorer? Thats fine to defend the family car, but it's another story when you use it to support a more general argument on the safety of SUVs.

I did a couple of Google searches, and here's a sample of what I found:

-- From http://www.suv.org/safety.html (The fact that it's from suv.org makes it seem reliable, doesn't it?) "According to NHTSA [the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration], SUVs roll over in 37 percent of fatal crashes, compared to a 15 percent rollover rate for passenger cars. Rollover crashes accounted for 53 percent of all SUV occupant deaths in single vehicle crashes in 1996. Only 19 percent of occupant fatalities in passenger cars occurred in similar crashes."

-- From http://www.suv.com/suvsafety/#SAFE (The fact that it's from suv.com also makes it seem reliable, right?) "Though SUV's may rollover 2 to 3 times more frequently given the same situation, there are more fatalities involved in passenger cars that roll over."

-- From http://www.riverreporter.com/issues/00-10-19/auto.htm "In a single car crash (for example, driving along and swerving to avoid a deer), drivers of an SUV have a 50 percent chance of dying as compared to 19 percent for cars (and 33 percent for pickup trucks)."

Then, if you want a site that shows two different viewpoints on "Are SUVs a health menace?" try this link: http://www.physweekly.com/archive/98/08_24_98/pc.html

I could go on, but I hope my point has been made. Don't base your argument on one link, as there are hundreds of Web sites discussing this very issue.

Ell"NEVER use one source!!!"myruh

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