SUVs & The Big Lie(s)
Ending the Myths of a 15-year Smear Campaign
WASHINGTON, Jan. 19 -- The following is being issued SUV Owners of America:
What: The Detroit News published an op-ed today from SUV Owners of America's President Barry McCahill detailing the persistent disinformation campaign by zealots to convince Americans that driving an SUV is self-indulgent, shameful hedonism. Worse, many of these self-appointed experts would have you believe that SUVs are ATMs for Al Qaeda terrorists, bankrolling their attacks on our way of life. From the first Gulf War when "gas-guzzlers" came under attack to the recent safety assault on SUVs, anti-SUV rhetoric has been ever-present over the last 15 years. And the effort to give Americans guilt-trips about their SUVs is not likely to go away anytime soon. Already 2006 has seen its first anti-SUV hit job: A widely reported study indicating that children are no more safe in an SUV than in a car. While this study received overwhelming coverage, a more comprehensive government study of fatal crashes concluded that children are at least twice as safe in SUVs than in cars went unreported. Who: SUV Owners of America -- a non-profit education group supporting the rights of millions of Americans who own "light trucks." SUVOA spokespeople available to discuss the above issues and why most of what people think about SUVs is wrong.
Link to Detroit News Op-Ed: detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060119/OPINION01/601190320/1008
Link to NHTSA study NHTSA study. The abstract and conclusion in the first couple pages only breaks down the data as LTVs (light trucks and vans) versus cars but the body of the study breaks it down further into passenger cars, SUVs, vans and pickups.
http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/nrd-30/NCSA/Rpts/2005/809784.pdf
Link to Insurance Institute for Highway Safety data that shows for almost every model year since 1992 SUVs have had lower fatality rates than passenger cars. "Since 1978, the rates of driver and occupant deaths per million registered vehicles have declined across all passenger vehicle types. Declines in death rates have been largest for SUV occupants."
http://www.hwysafety.org/research/fatality_facts/occupants.html#sec3