HPD to let SUVs
stay in service
There is not enough evidence
to warrant a change in vehicle
policy, says a police official
Despite two recent major collisions involving Honolulu police officers driving sport utility vehicles, department officials said they will continue to allow SUVs to be used as subsidized vehicles.
Assistant Police Chief Karl Godsey said at a news conference yesterday that there is not enough evidence to merit a change in HPD's policy allowing SUVs.
The department approved SUVs for general police use in 1991, and since then there have been three accidents involving rollovers, he said.
On Aug. 16, officer Issac Veal died after the Dodge Durango he was driving flipped and rolled over on the H-2 freeway as he was responding to a police call. On Thursday, officer Kevin Bailey was hospitalized in critical yet stable condition after his Ford Explorer rolled over after a collision with a drunken driver who allegedly turned in front of him on Kalanianaole Highway.
There was an earlier rollover involving an officer, but "I don't think there were any injuries there," said Godsey, who did not know when that accident occurred.
According to HPD, of officers' 1,264 subsidized police vehicles, 716 , or 56 percent, are SUVs.
"We're not changing anything," Godsey said. "The vehicles meet our qualifications and specifications."
The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration says SUVs have a higher likelihood of rolling over because of their higher center of gravity. Its Web site states: "Many rollovers occur when drivers overcorrect their steering as a panic reaction to an emergency or to a wheel going off the pavement's edge. At highway speeds, overcorrecting or excessive steering can cause the driver to lose control, which can force the vehicle to slide sideways and roll over."
Police said they reviewed a 2003 NHTSA report that shows that people in SUVs were nearly 11 percent more likely to die in an accident than people in cars. And police said they would make sure that their officers are aware of those statistics so that they can make their own decisions.
"It also says that in 75 percent of the deaths in rollover crashes, the occupants who died were not wearing seat belts," Godsey said. "In rollover crashes there's a tendency for occupants who aren't wearing seat belts to be ejected from the vehicle.
"I don't think we can dispute any of that."
Godsey said it appears that Veal was not wearing a seat belt, while Bailey was wearing one.
"Part of our policy and procedures is that we do wear our seat belts," he said.
Both the Bailey and Veal crashes are under investigation. Police have arrested a 22-year-old man for suspicion of drunken driving in the Bailey case.
