The Baltimore Sun, "SUVs not as safe as drivers think"

          SUVs can be seen most anywhere these days, plowing through snowdrifts and gliding with authority over icy roads. But the high-riding, four-wheel drive vehicles haven't made it all that much easier to get around in the ice and snow. Experts say powerful sport utility vehicles have serious stability problems and grip the road no better than cars do but tempt their drivers to take risks. And that makes them just as susceptible -- or even more so -- to disaster on slippery roads.
           "These vehicles somehow give you the perception of safety, which you don't have in bad weather," said Adrian Lund, chief operating officer of Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in Arlington, Va.
          Though better design has reduced the risk of fatalities from rollovers in recent years as the SUV has evolved into more of a family car, fatality rates are still much higher - nearly double - than for other cars in single-vehicle rollover crashes. In 2002, driver deaths from such crashes averaged 18 per million registered vehicles for cars, 47 per million vehicles for two-wheel-drive SUVs and 31 per million vehicles for four-wheel-drive SUVs, according to the Insurance Institute.
          In inclement weather, some SUV drivers may be overly focused on their four-wheel-drive capability, which under normal conditions gives them more control because it spreads traction and power among all four wheels, said Bill Visnic, a senior technical editor for Ward's AutoWorld magazine in Detroit. A driver would be better off in a two-wheel drive family sedan with winter or snow tires than in a four-wheel drive SUV with all-season tires, Visnic said. Four-wheel drive vehicles offer no advantages when it comes to braking or turning sharp corners quickly, said Sue Akey, a spokeswoman for AAA Mid-Atlantic.

Note: To learn more about the safety issues involving SUVs, including rollover accidents, please visit vehicle-injuries.com.