Vehicle Aggressivity

Introduction“Clearly [vehicle aggressivity] has the attention of the industry. It’stalked about in board meetings. It’s talked about in engineeringmeetings. It’s even talked about in sales and marketing meetings. Ican’t think of any engineers right now that are not interested in orconversant with this issue.”Jerry Hirshberg, President of Nissan NorthAmerica Design Operations.New York Times, May 22, 1998Motor vehicle crashes in the United States killed 41,821 individuals and injured 3,189,000others in six million crashes in 2000. In addition to the terrible personal toll, these crashes makea huge economic impact on our society with an estimated annual cost of $230.6 billion dollars inmedical and lost earnings. Most of these fatalities and catastrophic injury victims wereoccupants in smaller vehicles that were impacted by a sport utility vehicle, light truck or van(LTV's). The question that must be asked is: Why are so many people being killed or maimedfollowing an impact with an LTV? The short answer is due to the aggressivity andincompatibility of LTV's with smaller vehicles.About the Cover:Hidden underneath most LTV’s is a roaringlion in the form of a full frame structure that isheavier, taller and more structurally robustthan a passenger car. LTV’s are the lion ofour roadways because they leave a trail ofblood and devastation. Just like theinnocent gazelle has no chance whenattacked by a lion, smaller cars are preyedupon by LTV’s with catastrophic results.Page 2thefirm