D A I L Y+Q U O T E 007 vs. Rupert Murdoch R E C E N T L Y Purveyor of catastrophe By Jonathan Broder Maybe it's time for the U.S. to rethink an arms sales policy that keeps blowing up in its face (12/05/97) The ayatollah who came in from the cold By Christopher Hitchens John le Carré's outrageous attack on Salman Rushdie keeps the flames of censorship burning (12/04/97) The great Arlington National Cemetery smear By Jonathan Broder When it comes to screwing Bill Clinton, nothing is sacred, not even the dead (12/03/97) A tale of two families By Earl Ofari Hutchinson Why is a white "miracle birth" a major news story and a black "miracle birth" a non-event? (12/02/97) America's Asian "Berlin Wall" has crumbled By Jonathan Broder Thanks to American Cold War politics, Asia has been fed a steady diet of undemocratic regimes and corrupt leaders (12/01/97) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Browse the Newsreal Archives - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
		The bully on the block - - - - - - - - page 2 of 2 Is the increasing popularity of SUV's leading to more deaths and injuries overall? Well, for many years we've seen a decline in the overall deaths caused by auto collisions. In the last couple of years, that decline has stopped. There's a number of reasons for that, including raising the speed limit in many states. But clearly the change of vehicle size in the nation's fleet also has an effect. SUVs seem to be getting bigger and bigger. Aren't there regulations limiting their size and weight? No, there really aren't. For example, Ford has one of the hottest products on the market right now, the Ford Expedition, which I understand you have to pay a premium to buy. They're planning to build a vehicle which would be so large it would not be categorized as a light-duty passenger vehicle, and would fall outside of the Corporate Average Fuel Economy -- the so-called CAFE law -- which regulates what the overall fleet of a manufacturer has to get in terms of gas mileage. This new one would weight more than 8,500 pounds; it would be a medium-sized truck! I guess I don't quite understand the market for that sort of vehicle. How much bigger is this 8,500-pound monster than the SUVs currently on the road? The biggest SUVs out there now are the Chevy Suburban and the Ford Expedition, both of which are in the 5,000-6,000 pound range. What does a mid-sized car weigh? 3,500 pounds or so. It makes one wonder if the next SUV will be a tank. Exactly, and that's sort of out there in the Hummer. What regulations are there on bumper height? There's a range within which the bumpers must fall in. Unfortunately, if you have a passenger car, which is toward the bottom of that range, and you have an SUV toward the top of that range, they don't meet. So what happens when they collide? You get stiff bumper material pushing rather dramatically into car panels. About where a driver's or passenger's head and chest are. Certainly in the case of a side impact, it's potentially lethal. What specifically are you looking for in your studies? We're updating a previous statistical study that documented the higher losses associated with the liability coverage for SUVs. The second thing we'll be doing is a fairly detailed analysis of fatality data, to look at what happens in SUV and passenger car crashes. The third thing is we'll be doing some crash testing between sport utility vehicles and passenger cars. Can you give us an idea what you've learned so far? Early indications in the statistical study are that it will show pretty much the same kind of pattern that we saw before: higher losses being caused by the SUVs. That's important because there are many insurers looking at repricing portions of their insurance for SUVs. Two have already upped their rates. Yes, Farmers and Progressive. And based on the phone calls I've been getting, there are a number of other insurers that are certainly interested in looking at the data. I'm also getting calls from drivers of small cars who say, "You're telling me I'm getting run over by these bigger vehicles and I'm also subsidizing their insurance?" And the answer's yes. How high might the SUV rates go? Liability rates for drivers of SUV's could be hiked by as much as 20 percent over the next few years, while car owners would get a cut of 10 percent. Do you think insurance increases will affect the SUV market? I have to say, you're looking at people who are willing to put out -- what? -- $40,000 up front for one of these things, plus high operating costs and less gas mileage. Is getting the liability portion of their insurance increased a disincentive? I don't believe it would affect very many people. So what would you want to see? If something could be done about the height mismatch, I think both property loss damages and potential injury could be lessened. We've had some interest from manufacturers, including Ford, in seeing what could be done about this. What do you drive? A Lexus. Why? It's done well in our crash tests. And in the real world of injuries and fatalities, it's done very well. In terms of my safety and the safety of my family, I'm happy with it. SALON | Dec. 8, 1997 Ros Davidson is a regular contributor to Salon.