SUVs growing on Nevada drivers

Friday, Nov. 19, 2004 | 11:11 a.m.

Sports utility vehicle registrations jumped 42 percent in Nevada between 1997 and 2002, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Thursday.

Truck registrations overall, including pickups, SUVs and mini-vans, increased by 20 percent in Nevada over the same period. About 212,000 SUVs were registered in the state in 2002 compared with 149,800 in 1997. Fewer than 70,000 SUVs were registered in 1992.

The trend has been seen in many states as the U.S. Census Bureau has been slowly releasing its data from the 2002 Vehicle Inventory and Use Survey. Between 1997 and 2002, Texas saw a 97 percent increase in the number of SUV registrations, Utah saw a 64 percent increase, New Mexico and California each saw 39 percent increases and Oregon saw a 36 percent increase.

The U.S. Census Bureau records the data every five years to give policymakers a sense of the number and use of trucks on the road and the information is used by transportation planners, as well as in studies of the risks for highway travelers and of the fuel efficiency and environmental impact of the nation's trucks, the report says.

The vehicles, most of which sit higher than a traditional passenger car, have been criticized as their higher center of gravity makes many SUVs more prone to rollover crashes, said Liz Neblett, a spokeswoman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

In 2003 more than 2,600 people nationwide were killed or injured in SUV rollover crashes, a 6.8 percent increase over the year before, according to NHTSA, although the rate of fatalities for every 100,000 SUVs decreased 4.6 percent that year.

That year the agency noted a 7.5 decrease in the number of occupants killed in passenger cars.

More SUVs on the road means there has been a similar spike in gasoline usage, AAA Nevada spokesman Michael Geeser said. But, he said, it is easy to understand why many drivers choose SUVs.

"When you are riding in an SUV and you are the driver you are incredibly safe and they actually give the driver more security.

But all of that has a flip side which is for the motorist beside an SUV," Geeser said.

Drivers in smaller cars may feel less secure next to an SUV or may have find it difficult to maneuver or see around an SUV on the road, Geeser said.

According to NHTSA, the occupants of a passenger car are four times as likely to die in a collision with an SUV than the SUV occupants.

"Physics tells us that bigger wins in a head-on collision," Neblett said.

Increasingly larger SUVs have become fixtures on tight city streets, the Las Vegas Public Works Department has not had to change how it designs its streets and parking lots, Sylvia Romero, a spokeswoman for the city agency, said.

City engineers rely on nationally accepted standards distributed by the American Association of State and Highway Transportation Officials, which has not recently altered its guidelines which dictate city streets should accommodate up to 18,000 pounds, far greater than the weight of any SUV, Romero said.

"The only thing that really impacts the pavement on (city) streets are those big rigs but that's been an issue forever," she said. "The SUVs don't impact it as much."

AAA Nevada does not recommend one car over another, Geeser said. But the organization does support recent efforts by auto makers to make more fuel efficient SUVs, such as the hybrid Ford is currently developing.

"If they can come out with cars that are more fuel efficient and safer at the same time AAA would support that," Geeser said.

The appetite for SUVs is unquestionable, Sierra Club spokesman Eric Antebi said, which makes it more important that auto manufacturers do more to make SUVs and other vehicles fuel efficient.

"There's no denying that Americans want to drive SUVs, but the the truth of the matter is the single biggest step we can take to reduce pollution and reduce our dependence on foreign oil is to get all of our cars, trucks and SUVs to go 40 miles per gallon."

The technology to do that is available, Antebi said, as shown by the new Ford Escape hybrid SUV that is averaging 36 miles per gallon in the city.

"If the auto companies really got behind this (hybrids like the new Ford Escape) and gave the people what they want and what they deserve, we would reduce our dependence on oil, we would reduce pollution and we would save money at the fuel pump."

Clarence Harris, sales manager at Friendly Ford at 660 N. Decatur Blvd., agreed that the one downside to SUVs is that they "drink a lot of gas," but he said his customers feel the benefits outweigh that high cost.

"The reason people buy them is that they are just versatile," said Harris, who personally drives an SUV and said he wouldn't drive any other kind of vehicle.

Many of his customers say they like the height an SUV gives them over other cars, and the ability to tow cargo, extra passengers or drive off-road, Harris said.

"Every time I sit in a car I feel at risk, it doesn't feel safe because you are so low to the ground," Harris said.

"My wife drives one too. A lot of guys feel safer with their spouses and children in a vehicle that is big and bold and appears to be safer than most cars."

Sun reporter Stephen Curran contributed to this story.