Abstract
Light trucks and vans (LTVs) currently account for over one-third of registered United States passenger vehicles. Yet, collisions between cars and LTVs account for over one half of all fatalities in light vehicle-to-vehicle crashes. Nearly 60% of all fatalities in light vehicle side impacts occur when the striking vehicle is a LTV. This paper examines this apparent incompatibility between cars and LTVs in traffic crashes. An analysis of U.S. crash statistics is presented: (1) to explore the aggressivity of LTVs in impacts with cars, and (2) to identify those design imbalances between cars and LTVs, for example mass, stiffness, and geometry, which lead to these severe crash incompatibilities. (A)