
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, April 9, 1990                   TAG: 9004090269
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SMALL PICKUPS

NOT LONG ago, trucks and vans mostly were true work vehicles. Conventional passenger cars were used for almost all personal transportation. Federal regulators took those differences into consideration when they set safety standards.

But a changing marketplace has blurred the once-distinct lines that separated different kinds of vehicles. For many large families, the minivan has replaced the station wagon. Pickup trucks, once synonymous with good old boys and dirt roads, are now contemporary macho symbols. Small trucks in particular have become so popular that advertisements for them are a mainstay of TV sports.

The trucks, described in such terms as "ram-tough" and "hardbody," are pictured leaping over hills, fording streams and competing in cross-country endurance races. If a compact truck can climb a steep hill and traverse a creek and make it across the desert, then its interior must be safe and trustworthy, too. Right?

Wrong.

Tests conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have proved that occupants of small trucks are the most likely to suffer head injuries. In 1986, small trucks led all other classifications in the NHTSA fatalities-per-million-vehicles rankings.

The vulnerability of light trucks has two sources:

They are subject to less stringent federal safety standards. They are not required to have head restraints, protective side door beams or high-mounted center brake lights; and there is no roof-crush standard for trucks.

Pickups are designed to carry large loads. When small trucks are empty, they don't handle as well; rear brakes are more likely to lock in an emergency; and, with an unloaded small truck's higher center of gravity, more likely to roll over if they skid sideways.

When trucks were primarily cargo vehicles, the relaxed standards made sense. The size and weight of standard pickups make them safer than most conventional cars. But that doesn't hold true for their smaller counterparts. Now that so many of them are being driven as primary sources of transportation, new standards are being established.

By 1991, light trucks will be required to have head restraints. More protective doors probably will follow. But many light trucks that are being sold now don't have those features, and buyers should be aware of their limitations.

As long as these vehicles are used for the purposes for which they were designed, they're functional and useful. But no matter what the ads claim, the well-deserved reputation that small trucks have for durability does not translate into equally high marks for highway safety.

by CNB