Children are at least twice as safe in SUVs than passenger cars when properly restrained according to an analysis of a July 2005 study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) performed by SUV Owners of America, the organization announced today. NHTSA is the federal government agency responsible for automobile and highway safety.

SUVOA President Barry McCahill said, "Two times safer means a lot safer, and this is vital information that parents, grandparents and caregivers need to know. Unfortunately, last week it was widely reported that SUVs provide no more crash protection for children than cars -- and that's just not true."

"The NHTSA study documents still again that what you drive has much to do with crash outcome. All else being equal in safety equipment, occupants of a larger vehicle fare better in a crash, which is why an SUV is among the smartest safety choices. They may cost more to operate, but the added expense could be viewed as another form of life insurance," McCahill said.

The comprehensive NHTSA study, "Child Passenger Fatalities and Injuries Based on Restraint Use, Vehicle Type, Seat Position, and Number of Vehicles in the Crash," considered all fatal crashes, as well as injury crashes. In looking at crashes involving both restrained and unrestrained children researchers found that for children in safety seats or safety belts injuries were 21 percent greater for cars than SUVs, and SUVs provide 2 - 2.4 times better protection from fatal injury than cars.

SUVOA believes many parents received an incorrect impression of SUV safety recently. A much smaller scale study published over the holiday period in the journal Pediatrics resulted in national news stories saying children are as safe in passenger cars as SUVs.

But that study was based on a sample of less than one tenth of one percent of all crash-injured children; limited to only 16 states; and no distinction was made between the types of injury reported -- small cuts and brain injuries were considered equal, and the injuries were self-reported by the driver of the vehicle involved.

"The NHTSA study is far more authoritative because it is national in scope and much more extensive. Moreover, it comes from the agency that is the premier source for auto crash data collection and analysis," McCahill added. "Parents should look to the NHTSA findings for the bottom line in which vehicles are safest for their children."

"SUVs are extremely popular for good reason. They provide remarkable utility for families, businesses and recreational enthusiasts. They constantly rank as safety standouts in real world crash performance. Now there is another reason for their popularity -- they are the safest choice for child passengers," McCahill said. (See link to Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) below showing that for almost every year since 1992 SUV occupant death rates (passengers of all ages) have been lower than cars).

McCahill explained that vehicle safety is evolving constantly and automakers should continue to make SUVs and all vehicles even safer, for example by equipping them with electronic stability control (ESC) to help prevent rollover crashes. NHTSA found (in another study) ESC to be 67 percent effective in preventing a rollover from occurring. Because SUVs have a greater tendency to roll over than cars, this, and other design and engineering technologies will further widen the rollover safety gap between SUVs and cars.

"But most highway tragedies are not the vehicle's fault. Adults should make sure children ride in a safety seat or safety belt for older children, and buckle up themselves," McCahill said. "That may sound like staid advice, but it's still your best chance of survival in a crash." NHTSA estimates that 2 out of 3 people killed in rollover crashes were not wearing safety belts and that about 75 percent of those people would be alive today had they buckled up.

In fatal crashes a child in an SUV who rides unrestrained has a fatality risk four times the risk of a restrained child. In other words, child safety seats and safety belts are about 75 percent effective in reducing fatality risk in SUV crashes. Other studies have shown restraint use to have similar effectiveness in all types of vehicles.

"Children should ride with those strong odds in their favor. It's the law in all states to protect child passengers, but regardless its just common sense," McCahill added.