The 2012 Chevrolet Suburban has become third current-model SUV to tip over in a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration side-impact crash test, according to safety evaluations published yesterday.
In a test simulating a passenger car striking its driver's side at 38 miles per hour, the tested Suburban lifted high up on two wheels, then landed on its passenger's side, a NHTSA video shows.
The Ford Escape and Nissan Rogue compact crossover SUVs rolled over onto their roofs during the same test in May, and some past models have also tipped or rolled.
Photos show the Suburban suffered little physical damage from tipping over, but it's of course more difficult to safely exit a vehicle lying on its side. Most tested SUVs and other vehicles (including the Chevrolet Tahoe, a slightly smaller version of the Suburban) have simply skidded on all four wheels after being struck, or – if tipping up – landed back on their wheels rather than flipping all the way over.
Using a mathematical calculation, NHTSA projects that the Suburban has a 24 percent chance of rolling over in a single-vehicle accident, good for a rating of three out of five stars. The tip-over – what NHTSA calls a “one-quarter turn” – does not affect the Suburban's rollover or side-impact scores because neither test is designed to provoke that result.
In a statement to the Cars Examiner, NHTSA said the rollovers of the Suburban, Escape and Rogue weren't a "serious problem."
"After an extensive review of real-world data on injuries and fatalities represented by the simulated crash conditions, NHTSA determined that the vehicle safety ratings for assessing risk of serious injury and fatality are still valid," the statement reads.
The statement declined to speculate on what caused the vehicles to tip over. General Motors spokespeople did not return messages.
After the Escape and Rogue tests, Ford and Nissan spokespeople noted that the test is measuring injury sustained a side crash test, not rollover stability. The Nissan spokeswoman added that the Rogue may have overturned because of some condition in the crash test lab, an explanation Nissan also offered in a NHTSA report when its 2000 Xterra landed on its side in this test.
Besides tipping over, the Suburban earned top scores in its frontal- and side-impact crash tests. Its overall rating was dropped to four out of five stars because of the mathematical rollover resistance computation, however. The Suburban's scores also apply to the mechanically related Cadillac Escalade ESV and GMC Yukon XL.
Several other 2012-model vehicles also earned an overall score of four out of five stars in recent days: the Chevrolet Impala large sedan, the Ford Explorer and Honda Pilot midsize crossover SUVs, and the Toyota Tacoma pickup truck.
The Pilot and Tacoma were each updated for the 2012 model year. The 2012 Pilot earned nearly identical scores to the 2011, and the Tacoma slightly improved its front-passenger protection in the frontal crash test. The Impala and Explorer hadn't previously been tested.
See ratings of all 2012-model vehicles tested by NHTSA on this ScribD page, or visit safercar.gov for more information.
Comments