Published June 8, 2004


The rear-wheel-drive version of the Ford Explorer, the nation's best-selling sport utility vehicle, tipped up on two wheels during a rollover test performed by the government, according to results released Monday.


The news comes less than a week after a woman paralyzed in an Explorer rollover accident won a $369 million judgment against the Ford Motor Company.


The government said three other popular S.U.V.'s tipped during tests: the Chevrolet Tahoe and the GMC Yukon, both by General Motors, as well as the rear-wheel-drive version of the Mercury Mountaineer, also made by Ford. The extended cab version of a pickup truck made by Toyota, the Tacoma, also tipped up on two wheels.


The results underscore that sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks are not as safe as many consumers believe because they ride higher from the ground than passenger cars do. Generally speaking, S.U.V.'s and pickup trucks have higher fatality rates for their occupants than passenger cars, and substantially higher death rates than minivans.


And the problem shows no sign of going away. While the Explorer involved in the lawsuit was a 1997 model, the version tested by the government was an extensively redesigned 2004 model.


Earlier this year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration started its first rollover tests on a track. Previously, the agency used a mathematical calculation, factoring in a vehicle's specifications, to gauge rollover risk. But Congress, in 2000, ordered regulators to develop track tests after nearly 300 rollover deaths in Explorers equipped with Firestone tires in the late 1990's.


Results of the new tests started coming out in February. The latest batch of results covers 17 passenger cars, 6 S.U.V.'s, 3 pickup trucks and one minivan, though in some cases multiple versions of the same vehicle were tested, creating an even larger number of scores. In others, one version of similar vehicles, like the Explorer and Mountaineer, was tested.


None of the passenger cars received less than four of five stars in the government ratings, indicating a 10 to 20 percent chance of a rollover during a single-vehicle crash. On the positive side for Ford, the RX-8 from the company's Mazda affiliate was the only one of 27 vehicles tested to receive the government's highest rollover rating of five stars, indicating a less than 10 percent rollover risk.


By contrast, at least one version of four of the six S.U.V.'s tested tipped up on two wheels; both versions of the Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon did so. The Dodge Durango and the Honda Pilot did not. Dodge is a unit of DaimlerChrysler.


"There's no question, a vehicle that can successfully complete the dynamic test without tipping over would be preferable to one that does," said Rae Tyson, a spokesman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.


Consumer groups have been sharply critical of the government's new testing because it has inflated grades for some vehicles; even the Tacoma that tipped up on two wheels received four of five stars on the test, a finding that baffled some experts.


"How can the Tacoma tip up and get four stars?" said R. David Pittle, a former regulator and the senior vice president for technical policy at Consumer's Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports. "In our view a vehicle that tips up in that test is failing that test and we will never recommend it."


Kristen Kinley, a spokeswoman for Ford, said in a statement that "the Explorer is a safe vehicle consistently performing as well as, or better than, other vehicles in its class."


The four-wheel-drive Explorer, which outsells the rear-wheel-drive version two-to-one, did not tip up. Adding four wheel drive can improve stability by adding weight below a vehicle's center of gravity.


G.M., in a statement, pointed to drivers, not vehicles, as the real rollover problem.


"The dominant causes of rollover crashes and injuries are: excessive vehicle speed; impaired driving due to alcohol, drugs, fatigue and distraction; and failure to wear seat belts," the company said.


Consumer groups argue that rollovers need to be addressed as a design problem and are urging the government to make vehicles meet a minimum rollover performance standard. Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, has proposed such a change in a bill before Congress.


In the new tests, vehicles are driven through as many as 10 fishhook maneuvers, a jarring series of turns intended to replicate what happens when drivers drift off the road and then try to overcompensate. The tests are conducted at speeds ranging from 35 to 50 miles an hour. Vehicles are outfitted with equipment to prevent an actual rollover and testing is halted as soon as a vehicle tips on two wheels.


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/08/business/08safety.html