19th Jan 2007, 16:28
Sigh, I see. Well, not everyone who smokes a cigarette gets cancer on the first puff, not everyone who eats lead paint gets brain damage on first taste, not everyone who breathes in asbestos gets cancer on first breath...
But that's okay, because SUVs are so safe because they look safe.
Sorry, but I care too much about my family (and the environment and the national safety of America) to risk driving an SUV.
19th Jan 2007, 17:20
Please read carefully. They died because the Ford Explorer was INHERENTLY UNSTABLE. They were not speeding, they were not weaving, they were just driving at the speed limit when they were sideswiped by the Mustang and the Explorer lost control and flipped, as it was DESIGNED to do (See the Frontline investigation for proof).
And this is just ONE example of the many accidents I keep reading about in this area where SUVs are flipping over and killing/injuring their passengers. I do NOT read the same thing about cars that are in accidents.
But, of course, high centers of gravity and off road tires make for superior safety. Please.
19th Jan 2007, 20:43
Comment 13:08 makes a great point. Driving any car is as safe (or dangerous) as the driver. I once drove a car with no brakes AND no emergency brake 100 miles to get it home. I slowed it by down shifting and stopped it by turning the ignition off in first gear. I also chose to drive between 1:30 and 4 AM so there would be no traffic. I got home just fine. In later years I've driven everything from sports cars to SUV's. I've never had an at-fault accident. In fact my ONLY accident in 40 years of driving was broadsiding a kid in a Toyota who ran a stop sign. None of my 4 SUV's ever rolled, or ever hit anyone because I know how to drive. As for which is safer, all I can say is when I hit the kid in the Toyota his vehicle had to be hauled away on a flatbed truck and mine was still drivable. Small vehicles DO NOT fare as well in crashes.
20th Jan 2007, 07:16
I see, you mean it is YOUR OPINION that the Explorer is inherently unstable. Obviously Ford must have intentionally designed this vehicle to be inherently unstable, as you claim. Why just this week on the way to work, I saw several Explorers parked in driveways that spontaneously flipped over and went rolling across the lawn. Very tragic. I suppose the hundreds of thousands of Explorers that have not flipped over must have some design flaw, since they have not flipped over as intended. Or perhaps they are being driven by responsible people who recognize that a truck serves a different purpose than a sportscar, and should not be driven like one.
20th Jan 2007, 07:40
<< Small vehicles DO NOT fare as well in crashes.>.
Proof please, because the Insurance industry, the US government, independent labs, and all crash statistics say the opposite.
20th Jan 2007, 13:19
Sorry, but it's backed up the engineers that actually designed the vehicle.
Suggest you get your head out of the sand and watch the Frontline special on SUV safety.
20th Jan 2007, 13:21
I find this whole discussion hilarious.
It's painfully obvious that the SUV owners' argument boils down to this:
'My vehicle looks safe so therefore it must be safe.'
Hard to believe nearly 100 years since the Titanic incident humans haven't learned a thing.
21st Jan 2007, 18:04
It is simple math. A mass of two tons hitting a mass of one ton will continue in motion after striking the smaller mass. This means the smaller mass (usually an import) will not only be violently STOPPED and PUSHED BACKWARDS or kicked off at an angle, but will suffer massive damage due to being hit with twice the mass. The occupants in the larger vehicle don't suffer NEARLY as much rapid deceleration as the occupants of the smaller vehicle, because the larger vehicle keeps moving in the same direction momentarily rather than being violently stopped and catapulted backwards.
Crash tests are irrelevant to real world situations. Vehicles in the real world rarely hit steel reinforced concrete walls. They generally hit other vehicles. Since SUV's became popular in the early 90's, I have seen many crashes involving SUV's and small cars. I have never seen a SINGLE INJURY (let alone death) of any SUV occupant or driver.
One of the worst crashes I've ever seen involved not an SUV, but a relatively small Ford Ranger and a Toyota Camry sedan. The young female driver of the Camry ran a red light in front of the Ranger. Her car was barely recognizable as a car, and she was very severely injured (and may have died, I don't know). The Ranger had a slightly buckled hood and one broken headlight. The driver of the Ranger was totally unhurt and was standing beside the road as the Camry driver was loaded into a helicopter and rushed to a hospital in very critical condition. I suspect he probably got back in his truck and drove it home after the police were through investigating, as it was barely damaged at all.
Even small vehicles with rigid steel frames and heavier gauge metal fare way better in crashes than imports do. "Crumple zones" only help when the car STOPS CRUMPLING before it SQUISHES YOU!! I'll stake my family's life on rigid-frame, non-crumpling vehicles and leave the "crumpling" to the import crowd. The Titanic may have sunk, but it sure would have made a heck of a dent in a rowboat if it had hit one!!
22nd Jan 2007, 07:00
Suggest you pull your head out of your, er, TV and learn to drive. Erratic steering maneuvers and cornering at high speed can make vehicles lose control. Big surprise. Want to ban tractor trailers from the road? Better yet, why not ban all motorized vehicles, as they are all inherently unsafe, and can all lose control and crash.
22nd Jan 2007, 08:39
This comment has no basis in reality, and EVERY statistic on SUV crashes prove it.
After all, if the poster was right, why did deaths on American highways INCREASE once SUVs became popular after going DOWN for decades.
The poster will also have to explain why the Ford Explorer has more deaths attributed to its DESIGN than ANY other vehicle sold in America.
22nd Jan 2007, 10:34
No, vehicles are supposed to behave in PREDICTABLE ways. The Explorer does NOT, which accounts for its high death rate. And these accidents were NOT all high speed lane maneuvers.
Or maybe you didn't notice the GOVERNMENT warnings on ALL SUVs stating that the vehicles do NOT handle and respond like a REGULAR car.
And why should I have to 'learn to drive' when I'm not the one driving an SUV? Or is your new theory that everyone, but SUV drivers should "learn to drive"?
19th Jan 2007, 13:17
How ridiculous! What a totally unfounded statement. If, If, If... If they had not been speeding,... If they had been more careful,... If they had never left the palace... On the other hand, a 747 might have fallen out of the sky and crushed them. What is your point, if any?