Phillips Sentenced To Life; Small Car Safety
COLLINS: Want to get the very latest on a situation on Bucky Phillips. You may remember him as Ralph Bucky Phillips. And Betty Nguyen is in the NEWSROOM now with the very latest. A sentence came down here.</s>BETTY NGUYEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it did. He has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for murdering a state trooper. Now you may remember the search for Bucky Phillips. It happened back in April, back on April 2nd, when he broke out of prison. He was doing some time for a parole violation. Well, it wasn't until June 10th when police stopped him in a stolen car and he opened fire on a trooper there. Now that trooper obviously called for backup and then there was a search that ensued after that. Well, that kicked into high gear and there was a lot of searching going on between the New York and Pennsylvania border. And then we heard reports of Bucky stealing cars, breaking into camp sites and hiding with the help of friends and relatives. Well it came to a point when on August 31st two troopers were staking out a camp site where -- actually it was more like a hilltop home where Bucky's ex-girlfriend lived and he, in fact, Bucky, ambushed those two troopers. One of them was shot and later died. One did survive after three months of being hospitalized. And today, Bucky Phillips has been sentenced to life in prison without parole for the murder of that state trooper. Heidi.</s>COLLINS: All right. Betty, thank you for that.</s>HARRIS: Small cars, they're more popular these days, especially at the gas pump, but are they any safer. The insurance institute put eight to the test. CNN's Brianna Keilar has the results.</s>BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): Small cars can save you big money at the pump, but they could cost you dearly in a crash. Driver death rates in so-called mini cars are more than double that of mid-size and large cars.</s>ADRIAN LUND, INSURANCE INSTITUTE FOR HIGHWAY SAFETY: If you're in a small, lightweight vehicle like these mini cars and you get hit from behind, almost everything that hits you is larger and heavier, which means, on average, your crashes are more severe than what the other people are seeing. So it's more important that you have good safety equipment to protect you.</s>KEILAR: The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety measures vehicle safety on a four-part scale, from good to poor. Overall, the Hyundai Accent and the Kia Rio fared the worst with an acceptable rating for front crash tests but the worst possible rating for side and rear impacts. The popular Mini Cooper gets average scores overall. A top rating for front crashes and acceptable for side impacts, and a lower, marginal score for rear crashes. The Scion XB earned a good score for front impacts, but a poor for side crashes. The barrier used in the test penetrated far enough into the Scion to hit the dummy driver's head. The Scion also earned a marginal for the rear crash test. The Nissan Versa earned the best score of all. It was the only car to get top ratings in all three crash tests, but there's a catch. Technically, it's not a mini car. It's a small car that's marketed with the minis.</s>HARRIS: And Brianna Keilar joins us live now. Brianna, hey, look, if you're set on getting one of these mini cars, what should you look for in terms of safety options? It sounds like you should get every air bag available.</s>KEILAR: Now that's exactly right, Tony. And there is the side air bags are particularly important. Insurance Institute tests have shown this to be the case in all car sizes. But you can see how this is particularly true with these mini cars. This here a Mini Cooper, one of the more popular ones. It's part of this car class of cars that are 2,500 pounds or less. Now when you compare this to some of the larger vehicles out there on the road, for instance, this Chevy Suburban, which is about 3.5 tons, it is roughly three times the weight of this small car. It really isn't taking a genius here to tell you who's going to win out in an accident. But, Tony, there is one caveat. When you're talking about mini cars and these side air bags, actually the poorest performer in these tests, the Hyundai Accent, the Kia Rio, they had the worst possible ratings on these side impact tests. They actually had standard side air bags. But even so, the dummy in these -- this side crash tests sustained injuries that in a real person could be likened to either pelvic fracture, broken ribs, even damage to internal organs.</s>HARRIS: Not good. OK. So, Brianna, if you want a combination plate here, if you want the car that gives you the best in terms of fuel economy and safety, what's the choice?</s>KEILAR: Well, the Insurance Institute says you certainly don't have to give up safety to get fuel economy. Maybe you want a cute little car like the Mini Cooper. It certainly is aesthetically pleasing. But if you want something that's going to save you at the pump, you want something that's also going to be safe, go for something a little bigger. They cite cars like the Toyota Corolla, also the Honda Civic. Slightly less better fuel economy than these cars, but still pretty good. And they're bigger, so they're significantly safer.</s>HARRIS: Need a little heft. Need a little heft in your vehicle. All right, Brianna Keilar for us in Washington, D.C. Brianna, thank you.</s>COLLINS: Want to get a check of the weather now. Chad Myers is standing by in the Weather Center. And we've got quite a bit of snow coming to the Rocky Mountains?</s>HARRIS: Still to come, searching Mount Hood. Crews race the clock and a gathering storm. The latest on this developing story in the NEWSROOM. And pursuing profits while professing for Christ. More U.S. companies are matching the bottom line with a higher calling. That story straight ahead in the NEWSROOM.