
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, May 4, 1990                   TAG: 9005040767
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SAFETY RESEARCH GIVES NOD TO JAPAN

CAR ENTHUSIAST Jerry A. Stone's April 18 article, "U.S. cars safer than Japan's," berates the quality and safety of Japanese cars relative to American brands, and makes claims contary to published independent reports.

In terms of quality, reports from such highly regarded independent sources as J.D. Power and Associates and Consumers Union (Consumer Reports, April issue), consistently find Japanese cars rate higher than American cars on owner satisfaction, repair records and "would buy again" measures.

But what about safety? While Stone's answer involves personally selected incidents, research by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety tells a different story. Analyzing the actual death rates for the 103 largest-selling cars, controlling for car size and driver age and sex, this study found Japanese cars had lower death rates than American cars.

For example, all of the Japanese cars in the midsize four-door category had lower-than-predicted death rates, while all nine of the cars in this category that had higher-than-predicted death rates were American. Small four-door cars showed a similar pattern - the "safest" five were imports (one German), while the bottom three were American. The pattern was even more striking for small two-door cars; the safest six were Japanese, while the bottom six were American.

And how did Stone's highly touted large Chevy Caprice do relative to the little Subaru wagon that he expects is "just another Oriental death trap"? Not only was the death rate for the Subaru lower than predicted for its size, while that for the Chevy was higher than predicted, the Subaru had the lower absolute death rate as well. (For a complete copy of the findings, write to Car Report, P.O. Box 1420, Arlington, VA 22201.)

Car buyers who consider safety important should go beyond selecting a "safe car" with airbag and anti-lock breaking options. Being properly belted in, insuring that both driver and car are in safe operating condition, and driving defensively, courteously, and safely contribute more to reducing risk than what make of car one buys.

\ JIM MICHAELS\ BLACKSBURG

by CNB