Book I'd like to find

[m_cobweb]

baphometsangel, take note! ;-)

High and Mighty: SUVs--The World's Most Dangerous Vehicles and How They Got That Way, by Keith Bradsher.

The New Republic ran a lengthy review of this book last week that included a lot of the facts therein. Such as, how the auto industry got around a lot of mileage and pollution requirements by making SUVs higher and heavier until they qualified as "light trucks" (although they could meet those requirements easily if they wanted to spend the money to do so). And how studies repeatedly show that rollover risks are much higher than for other vehicles, yet SUVs still have a false reputation for being safe. And how perfectly nice people (as well as aggressive drivers who want to appear intimidating on the road) are buying SUVs without being aware of the facts behind their manufacture and marketing.

Comments

[rwx.livejournal.com]

The jeeps have one part of the rollover risk mentioned in the book, but they don't generally suffer from the second. The first risk is, of course, the increased risk of rollover.

The second risk is that the larger SUVs (and some of the smaller ones) can't support their own weight after they've rolled over, so the weight of the vehicle collapses the passenger compartment, killing/gravely injuring everyone inside. This collapse is apparently much worse than the similar collapse for non light trucks -- if you'd been driving a ford excursion, you'd have a lesser chance of walking away from that rollover.