It's a familiar phenomenon around these parts. Motorists purchase the biggest hulk of an SUV they can afford in the belief they'll be safer on the UAE's chaotic roads. It's basically an adaptation of the old might-is-right theory. The logic isn't entirely flawed, but nor is it necessarily 100 per cent accurate.
It’s a fact that in a collision between two vehicles, the larger one usually does a better job of protecting its passengers. This was the finding of a 2009 study conducted by the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety in the United States, which crashed a Honda Jazz into a Honda Accord; a pint-size Smart Fortwo into a Mercedes C-Class; and a Toyota Yaris into a Toyota Camry. In each crash, the bigger car fared better.
One of the most fundamental advantages of being in a larger vehicle in a crash is that there’s more metal and plastic between the front bumper and the passenger cell to absorb the impact. Conversely, smaller vehicles typically have a shorter front structure, so a greater proportion of the force of the impact is transferred to the cabin, which is obviously bad news for the occupants of said vehicle.
It’s also true that mass wins when two movable objects collide, so you’re almost always better off in a larger vehicle should you have the misfortune of suffering an unplanned coming-together with another motorist.
However, the story isn’t so cut-and-dried if you hit an immovable object, such as a brick wall or a tree. The drawback with larger, heavier vehicles in this instance is that there’s more energy to dissipate owing to their greater mass and the occupants may end up absorbing some of this unwanted energy. It’s basically analogous to the old “the bigger they are, the harder they fall” adage.
To illustrate this point, have you ever noticed how often Formula One drivers walk away unscathed even after shunting into the barriers at 200 kph-plus? Part of the reason for this is that F1 drivers wear helmets and are strapped firmly in place with a six-point harness, and the carbon-fibre tub they’re sitting in is ultra-strong and ultra-rigid. But also significant in this context is that F1 cars weigh around 700 kilograms (less than half the weight of a Toyota Camry), so there’s far less energy involved when they do crash.
Another disadvantage safety-wise with driving an SUV is that they have a higher centre of gravity than a coupé or saloon, and this makes them more prone to rollovers, which can lead to fatalities if they occur at motorway speeds. You’ve no doubt seen footage of accidents of this type, and they’re never pretty.
Vehicles of this ilk usually have longer braking distances and they’re not as quick to change direction as a smaller car.
So, are you indeed safer in a large SUV than you would be in a well-engineered sedan? Based on the points outlined above, it’s clearly a case of yes and no. It depends on the situation.
Of course, size is by no means the only criterion when it comes to a vehicle’s safety levels, and features such as radar-guided cruise control, blind-spot warning and lane-departure warning systems are just a few of the breakthroughs on the market.
These are classified as “active” safety features as they’re designed to help prevent an accident from occurring in the first place. “Passive” safety features such as airbags and seat belts are also constantly evolving.
An indicator of how safe a particular vehicle is can be provided by crash-test ratings issued by the likes of EuroNCAP and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Bear in mind, though, that a five-star rating isn’t a guarantee of occupant safety. It’s only a relative score.
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