Detroit Free Press, "U.S. regulators to gauge rollover risk; Vehicles to be ranked good to bad"

U.S. safety regulators will begin predicting the probability that a vehicle will roll over, cause of more than half the fatalities for sport-utility vehicles. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, responsible for issuing rollover ratings since 2000, will assign scores to supplement results based on test track performance and a mathematical formula, spokesman Rae Tyson said. The agency starting Monday will rank from best to worst cars, SUVs, minivans or pickups, he said.

Rollovers accounted for 55 percent of U.S. fatal accidents by sport-utility vehicles last year. SUV deaths rose 11 percent last year from 2002, to 3,995. Total U.S. highway deaths rose by 395 to a 12-year record of 43,220, the agency said in April. General Motors Corp. Thursday recalled more than 245,000 Saturn Vue SUVs from the 2002 through 2004 model year after the suspension collapsed during the track test, a 45-miles-per-hour "fishhook" turning maneuver. Congress ordered rollover testing in 2000 after at least 271 highway deaths in such accidents, most involving Ford Motor Co. Explorer sport-utility vehicles.