[atleastoptimal]

People buy SUV's because they want to avoid being injured in crashes (at the detriment of the other driver)

[vrosas]

This is definitely true. I do not currently know a single woman who DOESN'T drive an SUV and the answer I've heard more than once is just that they feel safer. The problem is, they're not wrong. But it's a spiraling problem - more big cars make the roads less safe which prompts more people to buy big cars...

[dmix]

In Canada people also buy SUVs and trucks because they handle the bad winter weathers better.

[Freedom2]

Yet per capita, US vehicle occupants are more likely to be injured in general while on the road than Europeans. Perhaps the driving standards are just far too different.

[atleastoptimal]

Because US roads traffic control systems suck ALSO licenses are much easier to get, there is more of a tacit tolerance of drunk driving, and the lower rate of public transport makes more people forced to drive despite preferring not to, leading to less of a selective effect of drivers.

We've consequentially paved over the issues (no pun intended) via creating a socioeconomic hierarchy of insulation from traffic injuries. Giant SUV's have become the mainstay of the upwardly mobile 30s suburbanite, who is immunized from the road hazards, collisions and dangers that would cripple sedans.

[NetMageSCW]

Per capita isn’t meaningful, try per mile.

[roger110]

Two people crashing in big SUVs/trucks aren't really safer than two people crashing in smaller cars. As for the difference, my guess is the driving standards.

[IncreasePosts]

Is that just because Americans spend a lot more time in their cars than Europeans do?

[kgwgk]

They also travel twice as much.