"If you make changes in the center of gravity, you have to be concerned about rollovers," he said.
And a revamped rollover rating system, due next year, seeks to better inform the public about rollovers, which account for more than 10,000 deaths each year.
A concern about rollovers led Ford to recommend that Explorer tires be inflated to 26 pounds per square inch, although Bridgestone recommended a higher pressure for the tires.
But heightened concern about rollovers, particularly those involving sport utility vehicles, has raised hopes among the systems' makers that their time has come in the United States as well.
In succeeding years, amid rising concern about rollovers, Ford engineers strove to adapt that tippy, bouncy pickup design, but with limited success.
Auto industry groups have said concerns about rollovers are mitigated by the fact they account for only 3percentt of all accidents.
"You ask the industry about rollovers, and they say, 'People shouldn't drink and people should wear their seat belts,' " said R. David Pittle, senior vice president of technical policy for Consumers Union, the publisher Consumer Reports.
In succeeding years, amid rising concern about rollovers, Ford engineers strove to adapt that tippy, bouncy pickup design for a family vehicle that spent far more time racing down the highway than bumping along dirt roads.
"Doing something about rollovers is a high priority because there is a significant number of deaths, and we are making progress in frontal and side crashes," said Brian O'Neill, the president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a trade group bankrolled by insurers seeking to reduce the cost of crash claims.
(As I write this, the top story on the site is about 401k rollover rules, while many of the other headlines are about taxes).
