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Term Life Insurance Policy New evidence from the government suggests that key auto crash tests run by the insurance industry and federal regulators might make sport-utility vehicles deadlier to people in small cars. And USA TODAY research finds little proof the tests actually lead to vehicles that better protect their own occupants.

Why is it that the media seem to think that larger vehicles are to blame for the safety problems that affect smaller cars The real problem is the faulty testing that leads people to believe that those small vehicles are safe (''Crash tests may make SUVs even more deadly, '' Cover Story, News, Wednesday). All passenger vehicles should be subjected to the same tests. They are not. Crashing a vehicle into a wall is one thing, but slamming a car into another passenger vehicle usually doesn't get as much attention.

Life Insurance The findings call into question the crash-test ratings that millions of consumers rely on when buying cars and trucks and could lead to an overhaul of federal tests to make them better predictors of what really happens when vehicles collide.

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Insurance Life Premium New government testing shows that as automakers design SUVs and pickups to score well in insurance industry and government frontal crash tests, they are making front ends so stiff that they might be more dangerous to those riding in small cars.

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Health Insurance Policy Getting a good crash-test rating doesn't mean a vehicle will show lower rates of injuries and deaths for its occupants in a crash, according to separate analyses by USA TODAY and General Motors.

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Health Insurance The issue of ''compatibility'' -- what happens when one type of vehicle crashes into another -- has become a growing safety concern, particularly with the increasing popularity of trucks, which sit higher and weigh more than cars.

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Insurance Life Premium Return Jeffrey Runge, head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), says car-truck compatibility in crashes is one of his top priorities. Major automakers held a meeting this month on car-truck mismatches. The Senate Commerce Committee is expected to address the issue today at a hearing on SUV safety.

Whole Life Insurance Policy Safety experts say every crash is unique, so no test can accurately predict what will happen when a car or truck hits a tree or another vehicle.

Auto Cheap Insurance ''The inference that manufacturers design to the crash test is often true,'' says Miami trauma surgeon Jeffrey Augenstein, president of the Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine. ''But if it (the test) doesn't accurately represent what goes on in the real world, the cars may not do well in crashes.''

Insurance Life Premium Whole What's at stake

Cheap Home Insurance Policy At the center of the crash-test controversy:

Home Insurance * The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's ''offset'' tests. In such tests, a portion of the front end of a vehicle strikes part of a barrier that crushes as though it were another vehicle of the same size. The 40 mile-per-hour tests, which air regularly on Dateline NBC, are supposed to simulate how most cars actually crash, which is not squarely head on. Vehicles are given overall ratings -- from poor to good -- based on how well a crash-test dummy's head, chest and legs are protected and how well each car's structure and safety restraints perform.

Care Insurance Long Premium Many automakers say these tests, conducted at 10 mph above government standards, force them to add stiff front ends if they want to score well against what is meant to be a vehicle the same size. But that stiffening, particularly in the case of SUVs and pickups, can make them treacherous in real-world crashes with smaller vehicles.

Home Owner Insurance Policy When NHTSA, for example, crashed a 2002 Chevrolet TrailBlazer SUV into a 1997 Honda Accord as part of its compatibility research, the head injury score for the Honda's crash test dummy showed a nearly 100% chance of death. It was more than four times higher than when the predecessor Blazer model hit an Accord. GM told NHTSA that it had made the TrailBlazer stiffer partly to perform better in the insurance institute test.

Auto Insurance Company Yet while vehicles that do poorly in the institute test might be expected to have higher injury and death rates, the opposite, surprisingly, is often true.

Travel Insurance Policy The Saab 9-5's predecessor, the 1995 Saab 900, ''collapsed'' in the institute test and was rated marginal. At the same time, it was ranked best among midsize sedans in insurance industry injury claim data that year and ''substantially better than average'' overall. The redesigned 9-5 has improved its crash-test scores while its injury claims remain about the same.

Insurance Quote USA TODAY research found that two other once-poor crash test performers -- the Dodge Stratus and Mitsubishi Galant -- have improved their test scores but have seen worsening injury claims.

Financing Insurance Life Insurance Institute President Brian O'Neill says insurers' injury claim data are dominated by minor injuries that are not the focus of his test, though he acknowledges that broken legs are.

Geico Auto Insurance Policy But critics say that if the institute's test represents the most common serious crashes, evidence of its benefits should be apparent by now. ''Nobody has that proof yet,'' O'Neill acknowledges.

International Travel Health * NHTSA's New Car Assessment Program frontal crash ratings. In this test, vehicles hit a barrier replicating a brick wall head-on at 35 mph. They are given one to five stars (five being best) based on how well driver and passenger-side dummies withstand the crash. In 2007, the test is set to become law. It will have a minimum standard that all automakers would have to meet.

Auto Insurance Premium Some automakers say vehicles have to have either very powerful air bags or stiff designs to score well in this severe type of crash. NHTSA statistics show that of all serious two-vehicle frontal crashes, 52% are straight head-on.

Home Insurance Policy Meanwhile, a new GM study, to be presented at an auto engineering meeting next month, concludes that vehicles with higher scores in the NHTSA test do not have fewer deaths and injuries than those that score poorly.

Travel Health Insurance NHTSA would not comment for this story, but officials often cite a 1994 study it did that found fatalities were lower in vehicles that performed well in its tests. The agency is expected to do another such study soon.

Insurance Life Premium Term Not 'a friendly vehicle'

Auto Insurance Policy The problem with crash tests, says Augenstein, who studies crashes with NHTSA and automaker funding, is that they are designed see how people inside the vehicle being tested are protected.

International Travel Medical ''So it's not surprising you don't end up with a friendly vehicle that way,'' he says.

Insurance Life Premium Quote O'Neill says it doesn't have to be so. He says that instead of making SUVs' front ends stiffer, automakers can make the trucks longer and add better-designed passenger compartments.

Umbrella Insurance Policy But GM safety chief Robert Lange says that while the TrailBlazer was made bigger and safer to satisfy customers, adding more length would have added weight, reduced fuel economy and likely offset any safety benefits.

Travel Medical Insurance Chris Tinto, Toyota safety regulatory chief, says consumers are demanding better interior space -- not longer front ends.

Hazard Insurance Premium When NHTSA did a compatibility test between small car Dodge Neon and a Lincoln Navigator SUV redesigned to be safer for occupants and to score better on tests, head-injury scores for the Neon driver more than doubled from what they were in the same test with an older Navigator.

Sell Life Insurance Policy Saeed Barbat, a Ford Motor technical safety specialist, says the 300 extra pounds in the newer model might account for some of the increased head injury score. Safety experts focus most on head injury scores because they are the best way to gauge the likelihood of surviving.

Car Insurance Rate Barbat acknowledges that many automakers, including Ford, make vehicles stiffer to improve crash test scores. But he notes that Ford has also done a number of other things to improve compatibility, including adding front-end beams that cut the risk trucks will ride over the tops of cars.

Financing Insurance Premium Lange says the TrailBlazer has bumpers that are level with car bumpers, and its weight is distributed better to reduce the force of impact in front and side crashes.

Cheap Life Insurance Policy Barbat, Lange and O'Neill say each of NHTSA's compatibility tests represents just one crash, which might not be repeatable. But O'Neill has made a name for himself and the institute by providing TV networks with tape of tests that also represent just one crash.

Term Life Insurance Ford, more so than any other automaker, prominently advertises its star ratings in NHTSA's crash tests -- despite the fact that it and most automakers used to complain that the tests don't illustrate typical crashes.

Deductible Health Insurance What happens in crash tests is clearly important to consumers. Millions of people a year visit NHTSA's site to research safety ratings before they buy a vehicle. The Insurance Institute has recently had more than 8 million visitors a month to its Web site, most of them to check crash-test ratings.

Individual Health Insurance Can tests be more effective?

Dental Insurance Many automakers think NHTSA and the institute could improve compatibility and increase the tests' effectiveness by using a movable barrier that crushes just as vehicles do. The barrier could simulate one size of vehicle, and all tested vehicles would have to be sturdy enough to withstand a crash with it. That would force small cars to be made safer but wouldn't force stiffer large trucks.

Auditor Insurance Premium O'Neill says he isn't considering changing the tests. He says it is the SUVs that are poorly designed for compatibility, not his tests.

Selling Life Insurance Policy NHTSA had been hoping to add a test similar to the institute's to its safety certification or to use as a replacement for its front crash ratings. But this spring, it is expected to announce it is delaying that effort while it continues to test the compatibility of SUVs designed to do well in the institute's tests.

Low Cost Health Insurance The agency wants to figure out whether requiring offset tests would just shift serious and fatal injuries from one vehicle to another.

Insurance Life Premium Single Runge doesn't appear to be wedded to any plan for crash tests at the moment. At the recent automaker meeting on compatibility, he challenged the industry to develop its own crash-test proposal for the agency to consider.

Landlord Insurance Policy ''Everything is on the table,'' he said. Cover storyCover story

Home Owner Insurance By Jayne O'Donnell
USA Today - 2/26/2003

Topic: Transportation

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