Aren’t all of the problems related to SUVs really just based on the poor driving ability of their drivers?
Unfortunately, no. Both research and real-world crash data demonstrate that SUVs are not well designed to maneuver safely, even with an experienced or trained driver behind the wheel. A January 2003 government report on driver response to tire blowouts and the likelihood of rollover in this scenario showed that even when the test drivers knew when their vehicles were going to experience a blowout, they lost control 30 percent of the time. (Click here to view this study.) Additional research, done by trial attorneys in the wake of the Ford/Firestone debacle, showed that even a trained, professional stunt drivers were unable to prevent Explorers from rolling over when a timed and expected tire blow out occurred. Fortunately for the highly trained test driver, his vehicle was equipped with additional crash protections to assure his safety in a rollover crash. But millions of American SUV occupants drive vehicles each day without these protections: Between 1991 and 2001, 15,594 of them die
