<Houston> wrote in message
...
> On Fri, 6 Jul 2007 14:11:07 -0400, "Mike Hunter"
> > wrote:
>
>>You are entitled to you own opinion. However I know better.
>>
>>mike
>>
>
>
> Well I'm also a structural engineer and your assumption is flawed. I
> agree with you if the two different size vehicles have equal stiffness
> but if the larger one was more stiff and the smaller one less stiff,
> it may be that the larger one has the fatalities and the smaller one
> has survivors.

I believe this is called "crush zones" where sections of a car are designed
to crush easily in a crash to absorbed the impact. The old race cars were
built so stiff and solid that they readily survived crashes relatively
intact, but the driver was killed. This also depends on how small the
vehicle is. I recall the original Honda that was about half the size of a
standard compact car. There was no room for any crush zone and it would go
flying when hit due to lack of weight. This is not good if slammed into a
tree or other structure.

Depending on the specifics of the crash, a large SUV will not be pushed as
much as a smaller car and in some instances a larger vehicle will give the
occupants a better chance of surviving. It all depends on so many factors
that you can not make any blanket statements about survivability.