The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recently released a report that explores the effectiveness of the primary and secondary energy-absorbing structures on pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles (SUVs).
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In 2003, the Enhancing Vehicle-to-Vehicle Crash Compatibility Agreement (EVC) was established as a voluntary measure to reduce occupant fatalities of passenger cars in crashes with light trucks and vans, including pickup trucks, SUVs, minivans, and full-size vans, generically abbreviated as LTVs. Manufacturers agreed upon voluntary standards for LTVs to reduce the height mismatches between these LTVs and passenger cars.
NHTSA statistically compared car-occupant fatality risk in crashes with LTVs built just before and just after self-certification to the agreement, based on FARS and Polk data from 2002 to 2010. Generally, there was a statistically significant 8 percent reduction in car-occupant fatalities of passenger cars after LTVs self-certified to the agreement.
However, for pickup trucks and SUVs separately, the effectiveness is inconsistent. Pickup trucks experienced a non-significant increase of 5 percent likelihood of occupant fatalities of passenger cars, while SUVs were associated with a significant 17 percent reduction. Furthermore, a supplementary non-parametric analysis does not show fatality reduction for significantly more than 50 percent of the makes and models.
Overall, these results provide some evidence that the EVC has reduced fatalities but are not sufficiently strong to permit an unequivocal conclusion that it has been effective in reducing fatality risk to car occupants.
Additionally, NHTSA announced in the Federal Register a request for comments on a Technical Report reviewing and evaluating the Enhancing Vehicle-to-Vehicle Crash Compatibility Agreement. Comments must be received no later than Oct. 1, 2012. For more details, please view the view the entire technical report (DOT HS 811 621).
For more information, please contact Leigh Merino.