Highlights ► A new standard requires that SUV and pickup bumpers match car bumpers in height. ► No evidence that fatalities among car occupants have decreased in head-on collisions. ► Fatalities have decreased among car occupants when cars were struck on the side. ► The bumper standard had little association with fatalities among SUV and pickup occupants.
Abstract Background In a collision between a car and a sport utility vehicle (SUV) or pickup truck, car occupants are more likely to be killed than if they crashed with another car. Some of the excess risk may be due to the propensity of SUVs and pickups with high bumpers to override the lower bumpers in cars. To reduce this incompatibility, particularly in head-on collisions, in 2003 automobile manufacturers voluntarily established a bumper height-matching standard for pickups and SUVs. Objective To assess whether height-matching bumpers in pickups and SUVs were associated with the risk of death in either car occupants or pickup and SUV occupants. Methods Case–control study of collisions between one car and one SUV or pickup in the US during 2000–2008, in which the SUV or pickup was model year 2000–2006. Cases were all decedents in fatal crashes; one control was selected from each crash in a national probability sample of crashes. Findings Occupants of cars that crashed with SUVs or pickups with height-matching bumpers may be at slightly reduced risk of death compared to those that crashed with other SUVs or pickups (adjusted odds ratio: 0.83 (95% confidence interval 0.61–1.13)). There was no evidence of a reduction in risk in head-on crashes (1.09 (0.66–1.79)). In crashes in which the SUV or pickup struck the car on the side, height-matched bumpers were associated with a reduced risk of death (0.68 (0.48–0.97)). Occupants of SUVs and pickups with height-matching bumpers may also be at slightly reduced risk of death (0.91 (0.64–1.28)). Conclusions Height-matching bumpers were associated with a reduced risk of death among car occupants in crashes in which SUVs or pickups struck cars in the side, but there was little evidence of an effect in head-on crashes. The new bumper height-matching standard may not achieve its primary goal of reducing deaths in head-on crashes, but may modestly reduce overall deaths in crashes between cars and SUVs or pickups because of unanticipated benefits to car occupants in side crashes, and a possible beneficial effect to SUV and pickup occupants.
Will the light truck bumper height-matching standard reduce deaths in cars?
Accident Analysis and Prevention ; 51 ; 292-300
2012-12-04
9 pages
Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch
Will the light truck bumper height-matching standard reduce deaths in cars?
Online Contents | 2013
|Bumper Heights and Bumper Height Mismatch
British Library Conference Proceedings | 1995
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