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Get Smart,
Drive On
Rollover Ratings? Ju s t Use Common Sense
You can roll any car, truck or bus. You
can flip any motorcycle, bike or scooter.
You can trip and fall, or stumble while
walking. But you shouldn't throw away
your shoes for fear of falling. You
shouldn't scrap vour motorcycle for fear
of flipping; and you shouldn't dump
your Chevrolet Blazer, GMC Jimmy or
Ford Explorer for fear of rolling over.
What you should do is learn to live
with the facts. That is what the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration is
trying to help you do with its new
"Even the highest-
rated vehicle can roll
over; but you can
reduce your chance
of being killed in a
rollover by about 75
percent ju st by
wearing your seat
belt."
"Rollover Ratings Resistance" list. Some
news stories might've led you to believe
otherwise. They were top-heavy with
exaggeration, causing some of you to
panic. Chill out. The truth is much
more pedestrian — something to know,
nothing to cause alarm.
African Americans On Wheels
First, NHTSA's "ratings" are mathe­
matical estimates of a vehicle's chance
for rolling over in a single-vehicle crash,
one in which no other vehicle is
involved. These ratings are not based on
the actual crash experience of vehicles
cited, there were no tests to determine if
a vehicle "passed" or "failed.”
Therefore, technically, no vehicle
flunked. None passed. There was one
overriding truth, clearly stated in
NHTSA's ratings report; "Even the
highest-rated vehicle can roll over; but
you can reduce your chance of being
killed in a rollover by about 75 percent
just by wearing your seat belt."
The highest-rated vehicles on
NHTSA's rollover resistance list have
five stars, meaning that they have a
rollover risk of less than 10
percent.according to the agency. The
highest-rated vehicles tend to be cars,
because cars generally have low centers
of gravity. That means they are less top
heavy, and thus less likely to flip or roll
when "tripped" by a ditch, curb, soft soil
or other object.
The lowest-rated vehicles tend to be
sport-utility models and other trucks,
such as pickups, because they have high
centers of gravity. That means they are
more top heavy and more likely to flip or
roll when tripped. It's common sense.
It's general science and Physics 101.
The only vehicle receiving five stars in
NHTSA's first round of rollover ratings
is the 2001 Honda Accord sedan. By
comparison, the Chevrolet Blazer and
GMC Jimmy got one star - based on the
application of the agency's rollover
resistance formula. But, as with any cal­
culation, the outcome can be changed
by changing (adjusting -RM) an element
in the equation. For example, you're
running along in your low-rollover
Honda Accord when it gets submarined
by a low-slung, wedge-nosed sports car
that hits you on the side. You just might
roll. (Remember: those "ratings" are for
single-vehicle crashes only.) Or, let's say
you overload the Accord trunk and
strap a pile of stuff to the roof. You
thereby render the vehicle unstable, and
to make matters worse, you failed to
properly inflate the car's tires. What
happens to your chance of rollover? It
increases, along with the likelihood of
fatal injury if you crash without wearing
a seat belt.
You can roll anything. The higher the
center of gravity, the greater the chance
for ending up wrong side up. A good
rollover rating is useless in the absence
of good common sense. That means you
"A good rollover
rating is useless in
the absence of good
common sense."
are your best defense against turning
turtle. To wit: Know your vehicle. Wear
your seat belts whenever the vehicle is in
motion. Check tire pressure. Drive pru­
dently. Heed the warning labels in
trucks and sport-utility models. Those
labels, usually located on the driver's
visor, advise you not to drive trucks the
way you drive cars. For example, don't
expect a humongous Ford Expedition
SUV to handle like a Corvette or
Porsche 911. It won't. You'll flip.
Finally, obey traffic laws, and pray
your fellow motorists are obeying them,
too.
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