Road groups urge greater occupant protection

THE RACV, VicRoads and the Transport Accident Commission have urged car manufacturers to place greater emphasis on occupant protection of small vehicles and to make a full airbag package of front, side and head-protecting airbags available on all vehicle lines.

The call comes after results from more than one million crashes showed that in a collision between a sports utility vehicle and a small car, the driver of the small car is more than four times more likely to be killed or seriously injured than the driver of the SUV.

The research also confirmed the high rollover rate of SUVs in single-vehicle crashes – while 16 per cent of serious injuries in large-car single-vehicle crashes are due to a rollover, the rate for SUVs is 41 per cent.

Drivers of 4WDs also have the highest risk of being injured in a rollover crash.