SUV Owners of America Comment as ESUVEE Visits Atlanta

ATLANTA, April 7 -- The following is an advisory issued by the SUV Owners of America:

WHEN: Friday, April 8, 2005

Are Georgia's 900,000 SUV owners getting the message? As ESUVEE, the mascot for a nationwide sport utility vehicle safety education campaign, makes its way to Atlanta's Turner Field on Friday, April 8, SUV Owners of America will be available to comment on the campaign and its messages.

While SUVOA applauds the effort to educate drivers -- especially young males who are in the highest risk group for crashes in all types of vehicles -- about the different handling characteristics of SUVs as compared to other vehicle types, SUVOA is concerned that this campaign includes inaccurate stereotyping of SUVs and may mislead its intended audience with outlandish images.

"We strongly object to the campaign's imagery," said Ron DeFore, spokesman for SUVOA. "The menacing look, posture, and sound of the ESUVEE mascot beg the question: Is the real intent to educate drivers or to demonize SUVs? How does characterizing SUVs as 'beasts' -- the campaign's own word -- educate young male drivers about motor vehicle safety and motivate them to become better, safer drivers? If instead the subtle agenda is to encourage them to purchase smaller, inherently less safe vehicles, it would be a quantum step backward for safety."

While SUVs have a higher center of gravity and therefore a greater propensity to rollover, data from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) show that SUVs have the fewest occupant deaths of any other vehicle type. Further, data show larger vehicles in any vehicle class have lower fatality rates.

"The best way to improve safety is not be demonizing a popular class of vehicles with an excellent overall safety record," added DeFore, "but to clamp down more on impaired driving, excessive speed, aggressive driving, and to increase seat belt use. Instead, millions of dollars are being spent on a campaign to apparently poison the public mind about SUVs."