Personal experience with an SUV crash,

[Milanogold@xxxxxxx]

(Sore) Greetings Alfisti!
      I'd like to relate to you an experience of which I had this evening
regarding this current thread on the SUV phenomenon.
        My wife, father in law and I were going to dinner this evening(driving
a now severely squashed 1995 ford escort LX wagon).We were passing a gate at
Fort Belvoir VA on Hwy.1 when the car in front of us signalled to turn
left,slowed and stopped.I did,and the car behind us,a 1983 Cadillac
Seville,also fully stopped.The gentleman (18 year old snot nosed kid whose
parents were out of town)behind him, driving a new1999 Ford Expedition (5600
pounds or so) was doing 55 mph (in a 40 mph zone )or so he told the police
officer, and did NOT stop.He slammed into the back of the Seville,pushing it's
already truncated bustle trunk into the rear seats,dumping the gas tank
contents on the pavement and hurting the guy bad enough to require a trip to
the hospital.Not wearing a seatbelt;one broken arm and smacked his head on the
windshield,it looked like.He was pushed approximately 75 feet or so from the
point of impact(it was dark,this is what the distance looked like from my
rather rattled perspective).The Seville slammed into us (From a dead stop)and
did the following damage to the Escort:
tore the bumper cover off the car, mashed in the rear liftgate,showering all
of us in glass from the gate and the side windows;and pushed the rear gate in
a considerable distance.The spare tire won't be coming out of it's well any
time soon! It broke my seatback (I was driving) and bent my wife's seatback at
an odd angle,bent the rear seats forward and jammed both rear doors shut.My 78
year old father in law was in the back seat  and got jostled around pretty
good. The seville pushed us approximately 50 feet and pushed us to a 45*
angle.The guy in front of us got just barely tipped on the back bumper, he'd
almost completely gotten out of the way when we got hit.We got a cracked
bumper cover on the left side. 
          Don't particularly care about what the pro SUV'ers think, these
levithians are a hazard to other drivers.Isn't there another substitute for
these 4 wheel drive prosthetic penis extenders??They are bought for
status,mostly.I am praying that someone on Madison Av. finds another vehicle
to promote as the chic vehicles to be seen in.This status symbol nearly killed
me, my wife and father in law.  
                Praise God that we walked away with a few scratches from the
glass and some REALLY sore muscles.If that Expedition had hit us directly from
behind, rather than having this Seville absorb much of the impact;most likely
we would have been attending my father in law's funeral.The bumper of this
Expedition would have hit him in the back seat at about head
level..................
           Large SUV's ?Killers.Small SUV's?Gas guzzling slow vehicles that
are a waste of resources.Alfa Romeos?Best cars ever built.period.
Investing in Absorbine Jr.stock,
Terry and Sharon Akins
Bruised and hurting in Alexandria,VA
1987 Milano Gold (alfie)
1984 GTV6 (Vito) 

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