Drive carefully, especially if you drive an SUV.

In January, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced that in 2003 more people of college age -- in fact, the entire age range of 3 to 33 -- are killed by motor vehicles than by any other cause.

The information is based on the most recent available data. These are not small numbers: About 8,666 people were killed in accidents in which the driver was 15 to 20 years old. That's one person every hour, representing 20 percent of all traffic deaths.

In Illinois, which had the fourth-highest rate in the country, it was almost one death every day. These numbers are expected to increase in the coming years because young drivers will increasingly be driving a Sport Utility Vehicle or other vehicle classified as a light truck.

Three influences are expected to be responsible for this increase: First, SUVs are dangerous; second, more and more are being sold; third, older SUVs are becoming increasingly affordable for younger drivers.

SUVs are lethal weapons. With their high center of gravity, they offer far fewer options for emergency maneuvering than do cars. Moreover, the consequences of their accidents tend to be unusually serious. SUVs are heavier than cars and transmit greater momentum in a collision.

A more deadly feature, however, is their high bumpers. In head-on collisions they ride over the bumpers of cars and in side collisions invade the passenger compartment of cars. An SUV collision with a car is about 25 times more likely to kill a car occupant than an SUV occupant.

Moreover, such high vehicles dramatically reduce visibility of other cars, increasing the risk of accident.

SUVs are becoming more popular. One must wonder why.

It is clearly not cost, comfort, gas economy or environmental friendliness -- some can produce 12 tons of greenhouse gas per year. Space, perhaps? Probably not, since vans offer greater space without many of the drawbacks of an SUV. As an actual off-road vehicle? For those people who occasionally use them in the wilderness, it would be far cheaper to rent a proper off-road vehicle.

In addition to simply appealing to consumers because they are new, different and "in style" -- an important reason for the popularity of SUVs -- is that their purchasers believe they are safe.

A friend recently bought one to have something safer for his new baby, an attitude that may explain why our neighborhood day care center has lines of SUVs at the curb during drop-off times.

The truth is that not only does the poor emergency maneuverability of SUVs significantly increase their crash probability, but also their instability is such that they roll over three times more frequently than do cars. (Recently, I saw an SUV upside down in a parking lot!).

Rollovers are an especially deadly kind of accident and now account for one-third of all traffic fatalities, with roof crush -- SUVs are heavy -- alone killing 2,000 persons per year.

The net result is that an SUV is actually more likely by 11 percent on average, but up to 200 percent for some models to kill its occupants than the average car.

Sadly, in spite of so much available information, purchasers of SUVs are acquiring vehicles that are more likely to kill them and far, far more likely to kill other motorists.

Traffic accidents already take nearly 43,000 lives every year. One hopes that such needless loss of life would lead to changes in attitudes and purchasing patterns.

Robert MacDonald is a professor of biochemistry, molecular biology and cell biology. He can be reached at macd@northwestern.edu.

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