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 The Chronicle welcomes you online! Please feel free to respond to these editorials or letters to the editor by sending your letters to the editor.

We condense letters; most, as published, won't exceed 300 words. A letter must include the writer's name and city, which will be published, and an address and telephone number for verification, which will not be published. Writers may be limited to one letter every 30 days. Open letters, letters to third parties and poetry are not considered. Letters from people living outside the Chronicle's circulation area usually are not considered.

SUV rating gets a star

Web posted May 27, 2000

 Have a thought? Go to the @ugusta Forums.

Augusta Chronicle Editorial Staff

How safe is that sport utility vehicle you've been thinking about buying as protection against all the other SUVs on the roads?

The federal Transportation Department is soon going to tell you, through a safety rating system, which SUVs are more prone to tipping and which are more stable. From the SUVs' looks alone, people seem to think that they are safe - they're big and they usually win in a car-vs-SUV collision.

But they aren't as safe as they appear, evidently. Consumer Reports calls the SUV safety record ``spotty,'' mainly because of their high center of gravity.

Statistics from 1998, the last year available, show that 62 percent of deaths of passengers and drivers in sport utility vehicles were because of rollovers.

The new government rating system will give SUVs between one and five stars - five for the safest, based on a mathematical formula that takes in consideration the height of the vehicle and the wheel-to-wheel width.

There is nothing wrong with the federal government informing consumers about the safety of products - it's done all the time with everything from food to medicine to all types of consumer goods. This is information consumers want and need to make informed choices before they get the keys to their brand new SUVs.