Not Only Are They Gas-Guzzlers….

….they’re not very safe either, according to this MSN report.

The seat of a sport-utility vehicle or a pickup truck isn’t necessarily the best place to be in a rear-end crash. Despite the considerable weight and size of these kinds of vehicles that convey a sense of safety, more than one third of 59 SUVs analyzed by an insurance industry group had seatback and head restraint combinations that rated only “poor” for proper head and neck support. This means that passengers in those seats could be at higher risk for whiplash injury.

Which I knew, but plenty of people continue to believe that their families (and kids especially) are safer in behemoth vehicles. The roll-over factor makes them less-safe too. After rolling into a river in a Nissan XTerra, I’m proof-positive that’s just not true. (Yes, I was fine, mostly because I was wearing my seatbelt!)

Wait, why are so many people driving them? Because someone convinced us they were cool, right? Hey, I had one (that I totalled, as mentioned above) six years ago and I thought it was the best. Convincing people that SUV’s are NOT cool is the reason I wrote this editorial on why fashion is actually important. And now we have lots of crash data to back us up even more.

autos, driving, farm, Fashion, gas, kids, sport

Starre Vartan is the founder and editor-in-chief of Eco-Chick and author of The Eco-Chick Guide to Life (St. Martin's Press). A problogger and oft-quoted green living expert who has been featured in the NYTimes, Elle, Glamour and Whole Living, she is a contributor to The Huffington Post, Inhabitat, and Hearst's The Daily Green, and is currently editor-at-large for Coco Eco Magazine. An active ecofashionista, she has style edited for Plenty magazine and coordinated runway shows. She splits her time between Connecticut and NYC and calls Sydney, Australia her second home, even though it was her first (as that's where she was born and most of her family resides). When not writing, blogging, or researching her next book, she is trailrunning, trying to cook, or snowboarding.

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2 Comments on “Not Only Are They Gas-Guzzlers….”

Activist Mommy

I’ve never understood the love of SUVs. Especially when you see people with small families who don’t go places or do things that would require an SUV. I hope that more people will see how unsafe they really are.

07/18/07 » 1:03 pm »
4WD gas guzzler

Driving my 06 xterra feels a bit tipsy. I try keep my speed down and take it easy to avoid losing control. Be careful out there.

10/22/08 » 1:02 pm »