Truck vs. Car

Along with their enormous increase in sales during recent years, pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles have become the "bad boys" of automotivedom in the minds of some safety experts. These folks often cite traffic fatality statistics suggesting that the driver of a car is much more likely to be killed if broadsided by a truck rather than another car. Moreover, they contend that the passengers in light trucks are none too safe either, given the propensity for sport utility vehicles in particular, to roll over.

Indeed, SUVs and other light trucks weigh an average of 1,000 pounds more than cars. In addition, light trucks are taller; during a collision, the truck will ride over the car frame or bumper, punching through the softer door or through the front or rear end of the car. Trucks also tend to have stiffer, heavier frames than cars, and these frames transfer, rather than absorb, energy during a crash. All this means that car occupants are in more danger than truck occupants in truck-car crashes.

To this end, automakers are trying to make their light trucks less menacing to cars. Mercedes-Benz, for instance, designed its ML sport utility vehicle so that its frame and bumpers are close to the same height of most cars. And General Motors has lowered the frame rails of its larger SUVs and pick-ups.