Newsday, "'Real-World' Rollover Tests; In fed check, no SUV gets best rating"

          A Ford Explorer Sport Trac, a small SUV, earned the lowest score among 28 vehicles in the first group to be rated for their rollover propensity using a new track test.
          One of two Sport Tracs, the one without four-wheel drive, tipped up on two wheels during the track maneuver, which supplements the mathematical calculations on which rollover ratings had been based since 2001, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The vehicle, which has a pickup truck- ike open bed, earned two out of a possible five stars based on the track results and mathematical calculations.
          Results for the four-wheel-drive Sport Trac are "under review," as are those for two other Ford Motor Co. light trucks, the Ford Explorer SUV and similar Mercury Mountaineer. "There were technical problems and we're going to have to do the tests over," said agency spokesman Tim Hurd in Washington.
          The new test, intended to simulate real world conditions, employs a series of abrupt turns at speeds up to 50 mph or until two wheels lift, with vehicles under computerized steering control. All but three vehicles in this test group were SUVs or pickups. Three passenger cars, the Ford Focus wagon, Subaru Outback wagon and Toyota Echo, each earned four stars.
          No vehicle earned five stars but nine SUVs and pickups earned four, including the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra full-size pickup trucks and the Chevrolet TrailBlazer SUV with four-wheel drive.
          The agency's ratings indicate the likelihood of a rollover in a single-vehicle crash. Five stars indicates a less than 10 percent chance of rollover; four stars 10 to 20 percent; three stars 20 to 30 percent; two stars 30 to 40 percent; and one star greater than 40 percent. Light truck rollovers have been a concern for decades because of their relatively high centers of gravity and growing popularity for family use. The safety agency says 61 percent of all occupant fatalities in SUVs and 40 percent of those in pickups in 2002 occurred in rollovers, compared with 22 percent for passenger cars.