October 7, 2002
Federal regulators are getting ready to begin testing cars and trucks to determine their rollover tendency. Under plans revealed last week, federal testers will use two high-speed maneuvers to determine rollover ratings.
Test drivers will put vehicles into a J-turn and fishhook -- both named for the paths vehicles take on the test track -- and then rate them on a scale of 1 to 5 stars, with 5 stars being the highest achievable rating. That would indicate a rollover rate of less than 10 percent.
The new ratings will supplement rather than replace the existing rollover ratings which are based solely on a vehicle's dimensions. This method assigns a higher risk to tall, narrow vehicles than to short, wide ones. Other existing tests measure front and side impacts.
Rollovers are a significant safety problem, killing nearly 10,000 motorists in the U.S. each year, roughly 30 percent of those killed annually. In fact, more than half (53 percent) of light vehicle occupant fatalities in single-vehicle crashes involved a rollover.
Congress mandated the new tests following the rash of Ford Explorer rollovers a few years ago.
The new testing standards were released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration last week and will go into effect in 45 days.
More information:Complete text of the new rollover standards
