How safe are SUVs?

[Winter]

My fiance totalled my 4Runner by driving head on into a large white cargo van at 40mph+. She emerged unscathed but ripped the front axil off the car. I'd say its pretty damn safe, and she was just as bad a driver in a station wagon.

 

Now I've got a '79 VW ASI Riviera Camper!!

[icegirl]

it's not just emissions or milage... it's how much you drive. You can have the biggest gas hog in the world, but if you ride your bike 85% of the time seems to me it would be better than driving your little car to the 7-eleven 3 blocks away (in addition to work 5 miles away and the gym 2 mile away)

 

Oh, wait, that just might help with the obesity problem america is facing...

[catbirdseat]

My fiance totalled my 4Runner by driving head on into a large white cargo van at 40mph+. She emerged unscathed but ripped the front axil off the car. I'd say its pretty damn safe, and she was just as bad a driver in a station wagon.

 

Now I've got a '79 VW ASI Riviera Camper!!

When you travel together, I must assume you do the driving.

[Winter]

Uh yeah, no kidding unless I'm really tired or really wasted. Even wasted I wonder if I'm a safer driver sometimes.

[scratchandsniff]

I suggest we get a bumper sticker for Greg W's truck that reads: "I suck Arab gASS, and support a weak America." Note the silent G! Maybee he'd figure it out that it IS everybodies business, especially the poor bastards in Kawait and Iraq trying to keep "his" cheap petro flowing. It's just one more reason to vote Bush out of office. (My bad, he got my first vote cause I thought he'd be less restrictive on weapons restrictions on citisens). The failed US energy policy vis-a-vis the military posturing we must do to keep oil flowing. Clinton was minimally better. Sack up dood, your sucking up our kids resources.

[specialed]

Fuck you non-truck owning bitches. The 2004 VW Taureg diesel pollutes much more than my Ford half-ton and your rice-burning, 3 cylinder tin cans eat ass. I drive man rig, fuck off.

[Fromage]

Hey Winter, I am writing my thesis right now on traffic safety. You claim from your one observation (wife's accident) that SUVs are safer. Sorry to break it to you, but there is a compelling body of statistical evidence that shows SUVs are, on the whole, less safe than 4-door sedans. My own research findings support this conclusion as well.

 

Consider this: your Toyota 4Runner weighs at least 4,000 pounds. Since p = mv and E = mv2, in most collisions your truck wins. Lo and behold, your wife emerges unscathed. I am happy to hear it. However, my research findings show that while car vs. car accidents constitute the vast majority (about 70%) of all accidents on the road, most of those accidents (about 67%) result in no injury. Hence your wife's good fortune. It is generally true that in car vs. car accidents the SUV will win.

 

The real danger to the SUV is non-collision accidents. These constitute about 19% of all accidents in the USA. Non-collision accidents are rollovers, explosions, fires, etc. The injury and fatality rates for people involved in non-collision accidents is WAY higher than for people involved in car vs. car accidents. And what kind of vehicles roll over? Yup, you guessed it.

 

So what does all this mean? Well, in the grand scheme of things, you are more likely to be involved in a car vs. car accident than you are in a rollover, but the consequences of rolling over are far more deadly than the consequences of colliding with another car. How should this influence your car-buying decision? Well, in a perfect world we would all drive Mercedes Benz E-Class sedans. For your wife I would buy a Volvo all-wheel drive wagon. Then you get better gas mileage, have a turbocharged engine, and can feel cool about driving a Euro car.

 

Maybe I will publish my thesis on this site once I am finished.

 

[scrambled_legs]

Hey Winter, I am writing my thesis right now on traffic safety. You claim from your one observation (wife's accident) that SUVs are safer. Sorry to break it to you, but there is a compelling body of statistical evidence that shows SUVs are, on the whole, less safe than 4-door sedans. My own research findings support this conclusion as well.

 

Consider this: your Toyota 4Runner weighs at least 4,000 pounds. Since p = mv and E = mv2, in most collisions your truck wins. Lo and behold, your wife emerges unscathed. I am happy to hear it. However, my research findings show that while car vs. car accidents constitute the vast majority (about 70%) of all accidents on the road, most of those accidents (about 67%) result in no injury. Hence your wife's good fortune. It is generally true that in car vs. car accidents the SUV will win.

 

The real danger to the SUV is non-collision accidents. These constitute about 19% of all accidents in the USA. Non-collision accidents are rollovers, explosions, fires, etc. The injury and fatality rates for people involved in non-collision accidents is WAY higher than for people involved in car vs. car accidents. And what kind of vehicles roll over? Yup, you guessed it.

 

So what does all this mean? Well, in the grand scheme of things, you are more likely to be involved in a car vs. car accident than you are in a rollover, but the consequences of rolling over are far more deadly than the consequences of colliding with another car. How should this influence your car-buying decision? Well, in a perfect world we would all drive Mercedes Benz E-Class sedans. For your wife I would buy a Volvo all-wheel drive wagon. Then you get better gas mileage, have a turbocharged engine, and can feel cool about driving a Euro car.

 

Maybe I will publish my thesis on this site once I am finished.

 

 

Please don't!!! this post is boring enough even with you jumping straight to the conclusions.

 

First off I thought all accidents involved a collision. What are non-collision accidents??? sound freakin' deadly.

 

Accidents not involving other vehicles are simply man's way of ensuring that God's survival of the fittest continues. If dude can't keep his car inbetween the lines and not rolling over, then take him off the road. I'm all for high injury rates in rollovers

 

 

Just one question that you might want to research in your thought depriving thesis. How many non-auto collision accidents occur in SUV's from negligent driving vs. accidents in cars? And how many non-auto collision accidents occur in SUV's from bad weather conditions vs cars?

 

Also, from the results of those involved in these accidents. How long have the people involved in SUV accidents been driving SUV's? How long have the people involved in sedan accidents been driving sedans?

 

That's like all the austin mini drivers changing to driving rigs. All of a sudden a rig will be the most dangerous vehicle on the road. Studies will come out proving conclusivly how dangerous it is to be driving a rig. Just wait until the retards learn the difference in handling and they'll cope just fine... well maybe not buddies wife.

 

Dude hide the keys!!!

 

Statistics can say anything you want them to say.