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Another fine example that SUV’s are deathtraps !!!
There’s no roll-over protection, many deaths occur to the SUV occupants with simple accidents – skids – wheels hitting gravel on the side.
Flip – multi-tonnage crushing your neck.
Oh what irony that the large SUV industry creating false security and people buy them for the “extra” protection they provide.
Okay, don’t take my word for it, you SUV enthusiasts…
Read this. The Myth of SUV safety.
http://kenrockwell.com/auto/suv-safety.htm
SUV Rollovers Kill Over 10,000 American SUV Occupants a Year
>>SUV Rollovers Kill Over 10,000 American SUV Occupants a Year
More evidence for the theory of evolution. Darwinism works!
Yeah, I rolled my SUV over… walked away without a scratch too. Darwin must have had the day off.
#4, natural selection is statistical, not absolute. Oh wait, you knew that.
>>Yeah, I rolled my SUV over
Sur-PRAHZ,, sur-PRAHZ, sur-PRAHZ.
JohnMo
“Yeah, I rolled my SUV over… walked away without a scratch too.”
Try again.
“Try again.”
Well, ya see, I just went and got me a BIGGER SUV than I had before and it just don’t tip over as easy. Acordin’ ta the statistics I’ve found, my big ole honkin’ Suburban is about as likely to roll over as my minivan. Course I’ll have to wait ’til it snows some more to try for a repeat performance. Hey y’all, watch THIS!
>>about as likely to roll over as my minivan.
You drive a minivan?
“You drive a minivan?”
Well, ya see, we keep havin’ more kids and the guvmint says they all has ta have their own places ta sit. So we has ta have sumpin’ more than a seedan ta seats’em all.
I don’t acshally drive all that much anymores. I got me one o’them work from home deals goin’. We calls it silicon holler around here. Shuh-ZAM!
#1, Mark
I believe that traffic fatalities are around 42,000 per year. So, does that mean about one quarter of traffic fatalities are SUV rollovers. I’m not saying you are wrong, BTW, just that it doesn’t seem correct?
Of the approximately 75% of fatalities occurred in vehicles with seat belts; of that, about 35% were not using them. About 35% of fatalities can also be attributed to alcohol. It seems there’s a problem isolating a single root cause in all these statistics.
If you get into your SUV slightly tipsy and leave your seat belts off, get some life insurance – your heirs will appreciate it!
If you want an interesting traffic story, check out…
http://www.udot.utah.gov/cfi/tutorial.php
This was opened yesterday in the west section of Salt Lake.
Oddly, less of an eyesore than most of the billboards around here.
14#: “Mini-vans are *much* safer, especially with kids, with over 20 years of proven safety records. Why, it was even part of the TV commercials.”
Statistically, minivans do well in the real world because they are mommy-wagons. If you account for a lot of other real world factors, minivans are the best of a group that *includes* large cars and SUVs. If you really want to live dangerously, pickup trucks and sports cars are your best (or worst) bet.
I’ve always read from a number of sources that SUVs are dramatically more prone to rolling over and that kids fare especially poorly in rollover crashes.
However, it is hard to tell from this photo whether the SUV in question rolled over or was a victim of eco-terrorism.
Either way though, let’s not forget that here in the U.S. 70-130,000 people a year die from the effects of air pollution. Even if one wants to argue that they are not more dangerous in a crash, they are more dangerous from the moment one starts up the oversized behemoth of an engine that it takes to make these stoopid vehicles behave as cars.
If one truly needs to drive off-road, it doesn’t take a mammoth V8 to do it. On safari, the 11 passenger Land Rovers get 24 MPG from their 2.5 liter diesel engines. You don’t need to go 0-60 in 4 seconds flat up the side of a mountain. For off-roading, low gear ratios and differentials that can be engaged when needed do fine.
16: “Even if one wants to argue that they are not more dangerous in a crash, they are more dangerous from the moment one starts up the oversized behemoth of an engine that it takes to make these stoopid vehicles behave as cars.”
I think this overstates the case. My Suburban pretty routinely gets 16 MPG. That’s not great, but then my minivan is only getting 22 MPG. I don’t think the difference between the fuel economy on these two vehicles warrants the amount of vitriol leveled at the SUV. If the minivan was getting 35 or 40 it would make my Suburban look *that* bad, but the reality is that there are *a lot* of vehicles on the road that oughtta be doing better than what they do.
I agree: bring on the diesels.
#17 – JohnMo,
Actually, the vitriol should be leveled squarely at the auto manufacturers for all types of vehicles getting far worse gas mileage than they should.
Few vehicles need 4WD, for instance. None need it all the time. And, it dramatically impacts fuel efficiency. Most vehicles are also dramatically faster than people need them to be. Just ask yourself how often you actually mash the pedal to the floor. If your answer is at least once on most drives, then you may need the power you have. Or, you may be driving under the influence of testosterone.
Either way though, even with the horrible mileage you quote for both of your vehicles, it doesn’t take much of a calculator to determine that your minivan goes 37.5% farther on a gallon of gasoline.That’s huge.
I’m not trying to be holier than thou here. My 1992 camry with only 4 cylinders gets about 30 MPG on a long drive and gets less than that around town. That sucks too. When it dies, I’ll buy a prius. It’s the only vehicle on the American car market that gets decent mileage. And, it could do a lot better too.
Imagine a diesel prius with solar panels and an HECE device. I bet that’d get 100MPG easily.
#18: “I’m not trying to be holier than thou here. My 1992 camry with only 4 cylinders gets about 30 MPG on a long drive and gets less than that around town. That sucks too. When it dies, I’ll buy a prius. It’s the only vehicle on the American car market that gets decent mileage. And, it could do a lot better too.”
How interesting. I have a ’93 Camry 4-cyl. With 258k on the clock, I’m still getting 30-34 MPG on the highway in it. I don’t like the hybrids at all. I do too much highway driving. A VW TDI actually beats a Prius on the highway. I can’t figure why the hybrids aren’t diesel powered.
The problem is that the economics of new and newer cars has to change. The purchase premium on a new Jetta TDI over a new, loaded Corolla with a 5-sp will buy enough gas to run the Corolla 100k miles. When my Camry eventually spills it steaming guts along the highway, I’m looking for used Corollas or maybe a used TDI at the right price. Until the Camry dies, there isn’t anything cheaper than buying another tank of gas for the old girl.
We all have to figure out what we need on a case by case basis. My Suburban sits in the garage until I need it. We take it on long road trips or when we have to haul a lot people and/or stuff. We have enough snow to justify bringing it out 2 or 3 times through the winter for 4WD duty. It’s a great third car. When one kid needs to go to an activity, we take the Camry. Economics at work.
Uh-huh. SUV’s are real dangerous. Mine’s nearly 20 years old and has not flipped yet.
Maybe I’m not a careless driver? Maybe I don’t screw around doing dumb things?
Naw, that’s got nothing to do with anything. The problem is entirely the kind of vehicle. I better watch out, next time I walk up next to the car, it might rear up and flip over on top of me.
Ja, shurrr, youbetcha.
>>Uh-huh. SUV’s are real dangerous. Mine’s nearly 20 years old
>>and has not flipped yet.
That’s because you’re a soccer mom, and you drive like a girl!
#20 – You are right… Anecdotal evidence is always better than empirical evidence.
Ja, shurrr, youbetcha.
========================
The biggest issue with SUVs and safety is that they give the driver a sense of being impervious to danger. Soccer moms in SUVs are the worst. They assume that because they won’t be hurt in an accident, that its okay to pull out into traffic without looking or to cut people off. They are some of the worst drivers out there and they are driving a machine that will eat a Honda Civic and its passengers with barely a scratch.
I have a far better caption for this picture.
“Here is your car on Hydrogen fuel” Get it?
Aww come on #14, the first car isn’t a SUV, it’s a wagon version of a sedan. The second video is of a moron screwing around. No telling what is going on on the third, but ANY vehicle can wind up rubber side up. Fourth video looks like the SUV makes out better than the crash test dummies in the sedan.
I’m no expert here, but in a collision it seems you want to be in the vehicle with more mass. If your vehicle has more mass than the other guy’s then you will change direction less. This means fewer chances to bump into things.
You’re right that there is a higher risk of rollover in a SUV, but in a head on collision between a Hummer and a Prius I’d MUCH rather be in the Hummer.
>>but in a head on collision between a Hummer and a Prius I’d
>>MUCH rather be in the Hummer.
I’d MUCH rather be in a Sherman tank, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to go out and buy one for highway driving.
What if everyone had cars of normal size? Wouldn’t that be a revolutionary idea?