"Dave Stadt" wrote in message
. ..
A factor that cannot be determined is how many accidents are avoided by
smaller vehicles due to their greater maneuverability.

Many factors are difficult or impossible to determine using current
statistical data gathering.

However, as in aviation, driver error is fundamentally the root cause of
most accidents. I find it amusing to see so many people (not just in this
newsgroup either) argue about which vehicle is "safer" when first of all
they haven't even agreed on what "safer" means, but more importantly when
most of those drivers need a "safer" vehicle because they and everyone else
on the road refuse to drive safely in the first place.

I'm not pointing fingers here. For all I know, every single person
commenting on SUVs here is in the top 1% of safe drivers. I doubt that's
even close to the truth, but the real question is drivers in general. On
the whole, they are terrible. If they approached driving with any real
sense of responsibility and care, then maybe it wouldn't matter so much
which vehicle was "safer".

Pete