The real issue over CAFE standards

This piece from Opinion Journal points out something I thought was obvious: One of the reasons people buy SUVs is that they are safer in a crash. The number of lives saved needs to be weighed against the savings from increased CAFE standards.

Occupants of small cars are obviously at higher risk if they collide with a bigger vehicle, but Mr. Evans contends that society is still better off with larger, heavier vehicles. A major reason is that crashes between two passenger vehicles are actually a minority of all fatal crashes--only about 22% in the 1988 data Mr. Evans used in his book. Single-car crashes--in which a passenger vehicles roll over or collide with another object such as a tree, bridge or light pole--account for about 45% of fatalities. Drivers of those 4,000-pound vehicles are more than twice as likely to survive as drivers of 2,000-pound cars. Think of it this way: When you are headed for an immovable object at 35 miles an hour, which would you rather be driving: a hulking Chevy Suburban or a dinky Honda Civic?

This is a good reason for supporting the movement toward fuel cells rather than promoting higher CAFE standards.