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WASHINGTON — Many new sport utility vehicles, equipped with anti-rollover technology, are less of a risk for rollover crashes than their predecessors, according to the government.
Rollover ratings issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for 2007 model year vehicles show SUVs making progress over past vehicles. The ratings give consumers information on the likelihood of a rollover. Rollovers kill more than 10,000 motorists in the United States every year, more than a third of motorists killed in the country annually, despite accounting for only 3 percent of all crashes.
Seventy-eight 2007 model year SUVs, more than half, received a four-star rating in the rollover tests, according to an analysis by The Associated Press. For model year 2006, only 48 SUVs out of 103 rated earned four stars. Only one SUV received four stars in 2001.
To guard against rollovers, automakers have increasingly installed electronic stability control. The anti-rollover technology, introduced by Mercedes-Benz in 1995, automatically applies brakes to individual wheels when the vehicle begins skidding off course, helping to steady it.
Eighty-six percent of 2007 SUVs have stability control as standard equipment, up from 43 percent in 2005, the government reported.
In NHTSA testing, no SUV has earned a top five-star rating. Under the ratings system, a vehicle with five stars has a rollover risk of less than 10 percent. A four-star vehicle has a 10 percent to 20 percent risk and a three-star vehicle has a 20 percent to 30 percent risk.
Newly tested 2007 SUVs receiving the four-star rating include: Infiniti FX35, Mazda CX-7, Ford Edge and Explorer Sport Trac, Hyundai Santa Fe and Veracruz, Jeep Compass, Chevrolet Equinox, Honda CR-V, Volkswagen Touareg, Acura MDX and RDX, Suzuki XL7, and Saturn Outlook.
Federal statistics show progress in reducing rollover deaths. In 2006, 10,698 motorists were killed in rollovers, a 1.6 percent decline compared with the previous year. The rate of rollover deaths in 2006 per 100,000 registered vehicles was 4.55, a 3.6 percent decline.
In April, the government said electronic stability control would be required in all new vehicles by 2012 models, estimating it could save between 5,300 and 9,600 lives a year.