Ouch

[ellyssian]

It's always the SUV's that I see on their side (or upside down!)

Didn't see the one in that link, allegedly caused by the storm here. Personally, I expect it had more to do with someone unable to compensate for road conditions than from the road conditions themselves.

Seriously - in the first winter I was here, I saw three large to mid-sized SUV's in compromising positions. One was spinning around on its roof. Two were involved in a cross-collision that resulted in one a pregnant driver going into shock and the other driver losing their arm (at least. I saw it pinned, so I know that much. Whether or not the person attached to it pulled through, I do not know.) Unfortunately, I've also seen quite a few others - in corn fields, up the side of a hill, rolled into ditches, and more - since then.

Comments

[feste-sylvain.livejournal.com]

There's a good reason for that: SUVs have much higher centers of gravity than the vehicles the drivers used to pass their driver's test.

There's also the fact that a typical 4 cylinder engine is only 20% as strong as the brakes, but a typical 8 cylinder enginer is 40% to 50% as strong as the brakes.

Add to that the basic fact that turning and stopping that much more mass is more difficult, and you see why so many amateur power-hungry nutball incompetent drivers turn turtle.

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Certainly. The owners manuals go into great detail about the higher center of gravity involved. Not that those - or the bright yellow warnings - are actually read, of course.

The only thing you missed is that Joe Average (the amateur power-hungry nutball incompetent driver) thinks that the four wheel drive makes him the gods gift to Traction. Sadly, it just helps apply that engine power to keeping that extra mass going, leaving the brakes even less able to cope with their spot in the equation.

[feste-sylvain.livejournal.com]

All true.

That said, our family station wagon is a Subaru Forester, which is technically a "small SUV" for EPA emission reporting purposes (which, of course, is why SUVs were invented). We greatly appreciate having the All-Wheel Drive in weather like this, but then again, we know how to drive.

On my more fascist days, I'd propose that anyone wishing to buy an SUV re-take their driver's license test for off-road capability. Not that 85% or more of SUV drivers ever take their vehicle off-road, but it would cut down on the number of over-powered morons out there.

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Ditto that.

Technically, I have to alter it to say "Deb's car" in place of "family station wagon" (she wouldn't like it if I called it that! =)

I like the AWD so much when I have to replace my car, it's likely to be a Legacy.

[batchfile.livejournal.com]

one of the scariest things i ever saw a SUV do, happened immediately behind me in rush hour traffic.
the idiot swerved slightly to avoid hitting an orange cone, and over compensated, then over compensated the other way, then overcompensated yet again, and ended up making a sharp turn on TWO wheels, hit first one guard rail head on(YES PERPENDICULAR TO THE FLOW OF TRAFFIC! FTW!) bounced backwards OFF that guard rail and hit the CONCRETE WALL on the other side of the other lane ass-end first!

nobody was passing me on the way to work after that.

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Wow, yeah, not fun to watch (or be otherwise involved in).

When those first little baby SUVs (the ones that rolled over even if you didn't overcompensate or turn the wheel or even turn your head to cough) first came out, my wife and I witnessed a very impatient driver decide to pass me on the double yellow on route 20 in Sudbury (very curvy small road).

We caught up with him a couple corners later - he was literally up in a tree; went up the bank and launched himself there. He didn't roll over, but I think his girlfriend was less happy with his driving than Deb was with mine! =)

[blood-of-winter.livejournal.com]

I saw three large to mid-sized SUV's in compromising positions


that just sounds dirty

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

SUVs are dirty. Plain and simple. Or they should be. Cadillac? Lincoln? Oy.

[blood-of-winter.livejournal.com]

and let's not get started on hummers...i want to go through the TV screen every time i see a commercial for one

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

The original Hummers are damn good off road vehicles.

I've been in one - scaled the side of a mountain, could change tire air pressure at a whim, and had a great warranty (drive one into your pond and get another free of charge!)

All the others, though, are just Hummer-like bodies on a Chevy Avalanche frame. Kind of like the kit car concept, where you slap some Lamborghini Countach looking fiberglass bits on top of a VW Beetle. It may look like an exotic sportscar, but at its heart, it's just a bug.

[blood-of-winter.livejournal.com]

I just think their environmental impact/gas mileage is horrendous. Especially if one is not using it for off roading.

:/

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

That it is.

It's a bit better if you get the diesel and do a VO conversion.

Quite a bit better, really.

But yes: they're serious off road vehicles, and it's a shame to see them used as daily commuters.

That's why the H2, H3, and H9,763,434 are so much worse: they're really not capable of the off road performance of their early ancestor, and are just pure resource guzzlers.

[silme.livejournal.com]

I used to see 4x4s off the road in Colorado. People often seemed to think that having four-wheel drive and sitting up high would mean they didn't have to drive carefully. :(

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

You'd think they would learn, even in spots that only get winter once a year. Those places that get it for more than a third of the year should be experts.

[silme.livejournal.com]

Often those folks in Colorado had out-of-state plates. I still remember seeing one guy fishtailing ahead of me, then I noticed his Florida plates. ;)

When I used to drive on I-70 every day out to the Eastern Plains (37 miles east of where I lived in Aurora, just east of Denver), we (I carpooled) would drive slowly and carefully in snow and ice, figuring it was better to get there late and alive than have an accident. (The school felt the same way as we did, luckily. :) Sometimes these big vehicles would zoom past us. A few miles later, we'd see them in the ditch. (To our credit, in the days before cell phones, we would stop and ask what help they needed and promise to call at the next town.)

For some reason, four-wheel drive makes some people think they're invincible. Maybe it's because I've only gone as high as front-wheel drive that I would drive carefully in snow and ice. ;)