Jul 24, 2008 5:39 pm US/Pacific
Safety Test Gives Small Trucks 'Marginal' Rating
(CBS 5)
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Pickup trucks highest driver death rates of any other vehicles on the road.
CBS4
When Kevin Call set out to buy a new truck, there was one factor that weighed heavily on his mind. "It makes me feel a lot more comfortable knowing my family's safe while we're riding in it," said Call.
But with the highest driver death rates of any other vehicles on the road, small pickups may be letting down their owners. Especially in side-impact collisions, which are the second most common type of fatal crash.
Of the
five small trucks tested by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, three trucks, the Dodge Dakota, the Ford Ranger, and the Nissan Frontier earned only "Marginal" ratings. And one truck, the Chevy Colorado, received the institute's lowest rating of "Poor."
The reason, says the institute's president Adrian Lund, is that "These trucks come with only optional or no side airbags at all. When you're hit from the side, there's nothing between your head and whatever's coming in, other than that side airbag. Side airbags should be standard equipment."
Only one small truck, the Toyota Tacoma, earned the institute's highest rating of "Good." Side airbags will be standard in all its 2009 models. Back at the dealership, that was a selling point for Kevin Call who went with the Tacoma.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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