SUV rollover facts
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is finalizing rollover crash tests this year. Here are rollover facts:
Deaths in all rollover crashes in 2000: 9,882
Deaths in single-vehicle rollover crashes in 2000: 8,146
Percentage of people killed in rollovers not wearing seat belts: 78%
Percentage of SUV deaths linked to rollovers: 51%
Percentage of pickup deaths linked to rollovers: 34%
Percentage of car deaths linked to rollovers: 19%
Sources: NHTSA, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety

By Jeff Plungis and Mark Truby / The Detroit NewsDETROIT -- The federal government's top auto safety regulator singled out rollover-prone sport utility vehicles as a major safety issue Tuesday, putting more pressure on a vehicle segment that has been driving the profits of Detroit's automakers.

After speaking at the Automotive News World Congress in Dearborn, NHTSA administrator Dr. Jeffrey Runge said American consumers can send a message to automakers by avoiding vehicles that are more likely to roll over.

"What I am hoping will happen is that the American public will exercise its buying choices," Runge said. "This is a market economy where the consumer always wins. We cannot regulate ourselves out of this mess."

In that vein, Runge said the federal government could change fuel-economy standards starting in 2008 to encourage automakers to build more large sedans, which he said are safer than SUVs.

Current fuel standards -- known as "corporate average fuel economy," or CAFE -- encourage automakers to develop SUVs rather than larger cars, Runge said. The rules require that an automaker's fleet of cars average 27.5 miles per gallon, while its SUVs, pickups and minivans must average only 20.7 miles per gallon.

"Large passenger cars and minivans are the safest way to move around large numbers of people," Runge said in his speech. "And yet we have CAFEed large cars out of existence."

Runge's SUV comments follow a new set of television ads that target SUVs for their fuel consumption. The ads, spearheaded by conservativecommentator Arianna Huffington, equate SUV ownership with aiding terrorists.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration began issuing star ratings based on vehicles' center of gravity in January 2001. Cars and trucks with a higher center of gravity are more prone to roll over and receive fewer stars. For the 2002 model year, 31 of the 95 models NHTSA rated earned two stars or less on a five-star scale.

"I wouldn't buy my kid a two-star rollover vehicle if it was the last one on earth," said Runge, a former emergency room physician from Charlotte, N.C. "My daughter drives a sedan. I drive a large sedan that is over 3,000 pounds. And my wife drives a station wagon. That's my family's choice because we are educated about injury risk and risk of death."

NHTSA is set to finalize a dynamic rollover crash test later this year. NHTSA will publicize the test results as part of a consumer information program. The rollover test will rate cars and trucks on a five-star scale, with five stars given to the safest vehicles.

Congress gave NHTSA a Nov. 1, 2002, deadline to come up with the test in a law passed in October 2000, following the Firestone tire recall. Runge acknowledged the agency has missed its deadline, but he promised the final regulation would be out "soon."

Runge said "the numbers are out of whack" with regard to rollover-related deaths and injuries. In 2000, 9,882 people died in rollover crashes, according to Department of Transportation statistics. Of those, 8,146 were killed in single-vehicle crashes. Runge said the rollover death rate was three times higher in SUVs than in cars.

Runge's points on SUV rollover problems are backed up by research from the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety. According to the institute, 51 percent of SUV deaths occurred in single-vehicle rollover crashes in 2000, compared with 34 percent in pickup trucks and 19 percent in cars.

"Many consumers have a misperception that they are safer in an SUV than a passenger car, when in fact, in vehicles of similar weight, it's the other way around," institute spokesman Russ Rader said. "The reason is rollover."

The disparity is even greater in different weight classes. The rollover death rate in small SUVs is more than six times higher than in large cars, Rader said. There were 114 rollover deaths per million registered small SUVs in 2000, compared to 18 rollover deaths per million large cars.

Runge said the rollover question is more complicated than measuring the vehicle's center of gravity, as NHTSA's initial rollover ratings did. NHTSA's dynamic test will also test track width, electronic stability control, the choice of tires, suspension and brakes.

The auto industry criticized NHTSA's release of center-of-gravity ratings, arguing that the mathematical formula the agency used ignored real-life benefits, like good handling, that could help drivers avoid a rollover.

Runge also said the agency would step up efforts to get SUV and pickup drivers to fasten their seat belts, since they were less likely than drivers of other vehicles to buckle up.

Tuesday was not the first time the auto safety chief has taken on SUVs. Last year, in listing the priorities of his term at NHTSA, Runge cited the dangers SUVs present to the occupants of cars in two-vehicle crashes.