US insurers to take closer look at SUV safety
By
John Crawley
WASHINGTON, Feb
10 (Reuters) - An insurance industry group will take a closer look at
sport utility vehicle safety on Tuesday just weeks after the top U.S.
auto regulator warned car companies to build safer SUVs or face possible
new regulation.
The Insurance Institute
for Highway Safety, a non-profit auto safety research group funded by
insurance companies, will host two days of meetings with engineers from
car makers and other researchers.
They will tackle
concerns with light trucks, which include SUVs, minivans, and pickups,
sharing the road with smaller passenger vehicles, like compact cars.
The group will focus
on interior protections for drivers and passengers and on the severity
of crashes between the two vehicle classes.
"We're getting
everyone together to see what we think are the principle components
of crash incompatibility and what can be done in the short and long
term to reduce them," said Brian O'Neill, the insurance institute's
president.
"Three things
contribute to incompatibility -- weight differences, a tall vehicle
colliding with a short vehicle, and a stiff vehicle colliding into a
soft vehicle," O'Neill said.
According to government
figures, there are nearly 300 deaths per 100,000 crashes involving a
large pickup and another vehicle. The figure drops to 205 when a large
sport utility vehicle is involved and 151 for a smaller SUV, like a
Ford Explorer (NYSE:F - News).
Jeffrey Runge, the
nation's top auto regulator as head of the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration, will address the study group on Tuesday.
An emergency room
physician, Runge shook the industry last month with tough talk on SUV
safety. The institute stressed its meeting was scheduled long before
his comments.
SAFETY PRIORITIES
Runge will also
meet with NHTSA working groups this week for updates on this and other
safety priorities, which aides said could include recommendations down
the road for SUV redesigns.
Another consideration
by the safety community is the future of traditional SUVs with increasingly
popular and smaller "crossover" vehicles.
These models offer
the look and space of sport utility vehicles but are built on passenger
car frames. Traditional SUVs are based on heavier pickup truck construction.
Runge, who will
elaborate on his ideas at a Feb. 26 Senate hearing, would not discuss
SUV safety with reporters at an auto safety event on Monday.
Aides stressed that
he has yet to formulate any safety recommendations, and would not suggest
any in his remarks to the insurance institute group.
"I think he's
going to urge that the auto industry address some of these problems
quickly," O'Neill said. "If there are things the industry
can do on a voluntary basis that is faster than a rulemaking."
It can take years
for the government to formulate regulations.
"There are
really a lot more questions than answers," said Gloria Bergquist,
a spokeswoman for the trade group the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers.
"This meeting is to look at issues, what questions they need to
ask, and what data they need to explore."
She said manufacturers
have already taken important steps.
For instance, Ford
has redesigned the 2002 Explorer by lowering its center of gravity and
adjusting its frame to the same height as passenger cars. General Motors
(NYSE:GM - News) also made its midsized SUVs more stable when it redesigned
them in 2001.
Those two manufacturers
and Chrysler, a unit of DaimlerChrysler AG <DCX.N DCXGn.DE>, also
offer side-curtain air bags on some SUVs.
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