2007 SUVs less likely to roll over, US study says

WASHINGTON -- Many new sport utility vehicles, equipped with antirollover technology, are less of a risk for rollover crashes than their predecessors, the government says.

Rollover ratings issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration show 2007 SUVs making progress over past vehicles. The ratings give consumers information on the likelihood of a rollover, which kill more than 10,000 motorists in the United States every year, more than a third of motorists killed in the country annually, despite accounting for only 3 percent of all crashes.

Seventy-eight 2007 model year SUVs received a four-star rating in the rollover tests, according to an analysis by the Associated Press. More than half of the 2007 SUVs had four-star ratings, compared to 48 of the 2006 SUVs that earned four stars out of 103 SUVs rated. Only one SUV received four stars in 2001.

To guard against rollovers, automakers have increasingly installed electronic stability control into their vehicle lineups. The antirollover technology, which was introduced by Mercedes-Benz in 1995, automatically applies brakes to individual wheels when the vehicle begins skidding off course, helping to steady the vehicle.

Eighty-six percent of 2007 SUVs have stability control as standard equipment, up from 43 percent in 2005, the government reported.

In NHTSA testing, no SUV has earned a top five-star rating. Under the ratings system, a vehicle with five stars has a rollover risk of less than 10 percent. A four-star vehicle has a 10 percent to 20 percent risk, and a three-star vehicle has a 20 percent to 30 percent risk.

In 2006, 10,698 motorists were killed in rollovers, a 1.6 percent decline compared to the previous year. The rate of rollover deaths in 2006 per 100,000 registered vehicles was 4.55, a 3.6 percent decline.