Re: SUVs

[Joe Elliott <jee@domain.elided>]

At 12:34 AM +0000 9/3/02, alfa-digest wrote:
> Besides, I've seen people drive
> like
> shit in just about every type of vehicle.
No one will deny that (having said that, Greg Hermann will probably 
deny it)--I think the point is that when an idiot hits you in an 
Accord, both vehicle's crumple zones absorb the collision energy and 
everyone walks away.  But when the same idiot hits you in an SUV, you 
absorb the collision energy and die in the process.

I'll defend your right to drive a Fiat 500 on the freeway because 
you're only putting yourself at risk--but driving a truck on public 
roads places everybody else at risk.  That's why your freedom to 
drive drunk is restricted.  (Since people like to assume otherwise, 
I'll add another sentence to this off-topic post and state explicitly 
that I have absolutely no problem with people who use trucks to haul 
gravel, tow Alfas, go offroading, etc, etc.)

No one likes to see their Alfa destroyed by someone else's shitty 
driving, but if it can do what it was designed to do and save your 
life by absorbing energy, you shouldn't complain because there will 
always be shitty drivers.  It's when the idiot's vehicle contributes 
more energy to the collision than your Alfa can absorb, and absorbs 
none of it itself, and you die, that I'm apt to complain.

Joe Elliott
'82 GTV6 (which is hopefully agile enough to get out of the way of 
errant SUVs so they hit hard stationary objects or other SUVs, and 
eliminate their drivers from the gene pool with their huge kinetic 
engergies and total lack of ability to absorb it in a collision)
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