Further to my previous post:
"Bigger is safer
"A vehicle's size and weight are two of its most important safety
features. Small cars have more than twice as many occupant deaths each
year as large cars, in relation to their numbers on the road,
according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). And
collision injuries consistently decrease as vehicle size increases.
"One reason: Most new cars have one-piece, or unibody, construction,
with built-in crush zones that fold up like an accordion in a crash.
These crush zones are designed to absorb crash forces before they
reach the driver and passenger. The larger the crush zones, the lower
the crash forces that reach the inside of the vehicle. Translation:
Bigger cars are safer cars.
"With the increasing popularity of sport utility vehicles and pickups,
the average weight of vehicles on the road is increasing these days.
That makes lighter and smaller vehicles even more vulnerable in
multi-vehicle crashes. (Note, however, that sport utilities are twice
as likely to have rolled over than cars in fatal crashes, according to
the NHTSA.)
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m0BUZ/1999_Annual/56203065/p2/article.jhtml?term=
This is not the document I recently read. But in the one I read
(which I cannot find right now), you could clearly see that size
matters. In fact, the pick-up truck like the Ford F-150 had among the
smallest number of deaths.
