SUVs

[Joe Elliott <jee@domain.elided>]

I hate to get it on this, but I feel compelled to point out that even 
the best of us make mistakes, or at least get forced into situations 
(like Vasco's) where there is no collision-free way out, and the 
simple truth is that you're several times less likely to kill 
somebody if you're driving a modern, unibody passenger car with 
bumpers at the proper height, crumple zones, and less than two tons 
of mass.  I don't think I need to bring up on this forum the fact 
that such "real" cars can also avoid a lot of accidents that 
top-heavy, softly-sprung, overweight trucks riding on antiquated 
suspension technology can't, no matter how skilled the driver.  If 
you need a truck for your job or a primary hobby, fine, but 
otherwise, trucks masquerading as passenger cars are just as, if not 
more inexcusable than the low standards the USA maintains for driver 
training.

At 12:34 AM -0500 1/18/02, alfa-digest wrote:
>I was parked five feet behind her and she backed up slowly--the dis on
>SUVs is that she would really have had a hard time seeing me if she had
>tried. I agree on the driver problem--decent training and testing would
>help.
>
>- --- "Gregory S. Youngblood" <greg@domain.elided> wrote:
> > On Thu, 17 Jan 2002, Alan Lambert wrote:
> >
> > > --- Eric Hambleton <EricHambleton@domain.elided> wrote:
> > >
> > > >   1993 164 L (now with fender damage due to an inattentive SUV
> > driver
> > > > backing up)
> > >
> > > Ah yes--SUV's should be banned, or their drivers required to have A
> > > licenses.--My Spider suffered about $5,000 in damage (her Daddy
> > paid)
> > > after a 17 year old decided to back up to retrigger a traffic
> > light.
> > > Seeing what was behind her apparently didn't occur to her.
> >
> > Ah yes, another "religious" topic. ;)
> >
> > As a modest sized SUV owner/driver (Suburban) I would disagree. The
> > problem is quite simply the drivers themselves. She would have
> > probably
> > backed into you even if she were driving a small honda.

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