From Pine View Farm

SUVs Get Safer 4

From today’s local rag:

Rollover ratings issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for 2007 vehicles show SUVs making progress over previous model years. The ratings give consumers information on the likelihood of rollovers, which kill more than 10,000 motorists in the United States each year – more than a third of motorists killed in the country annually, despite accounting for only 3 percent of all crashes.

Seventy-eight 2007 SUVs received a four-star rating in the rollover tests, according to an analysis by the Associated Press. More than half of the 2007 SUVs had four-star ratings; only 48 of 103 2006 SUVs that were rated earned four stars. Only one SUV received four stars in 2001.

Unfortunately, I can say, based on close personal observation, that their drivers have not.

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4 comments

  1. Bill

    August 29, 2007 at 8:41 pm

    It’s not SUV drivers – it’s drivers in general. The kind of vehicle one drives has nothing to do with their ability (or lack thereof) to drive safely.

    How about the idiots who drive the so-called sport bikes. I had one pass me on I-70 west of Frederick, Maryland the other day. He was driving down the center line doing 90+ (if I had to guess). He drove between me and another vehicle. Scared the heck out of me. I’m surprised I didn’t see him spread all over the road before I got to Baltimore. Or the guy in the truck (following much too close) who almost ran over me when I narrowly avoided a deer that darted out from the side of some curvy little road in West (by God) Virginia. By the way, I was driving an SUV at the time. Guess both those were my fault.

     
  2. Karen

    August 30, 2007 at 6:34 am

    I don’t know about the east coast, but the SUV drivers here in the mountain areas are the idiots that you see off the side of the road when they forget that NOTHING can be driven safely on ice. Every year, westbound I-70, going to the ski areas you’ll see an SUV whos driver was going too fast for the conditions, being pulled back up onto the highway, onto the waiting tow truck. Even down here, where it’s low, they still do the same thing. The rampant mentality of an SUV being able to drive over anything, safely, shows. In the number of crashes.

     
  3. Frank

    August 30, 2007 at 5:44 pm

    I assume Bill is referring to watch you call your “crotch rockets.” We saw one on our drive down south on Ga. 447 who–well, never mind, but his speed was certainly higher than his IQ.

    I think SUV drivers assume an aura of invincibility because they are surrounded by so much steel. In this part of the world, when we get a little snow, they delight in demonstrating that they can still go 70.

    What they forget is they can’t stop better than anyone else. Oh, that guardrail on the median strip beckons them . . .

     
  4. Bill

    August 31, 2007 at 4:19 pm

    “Sport bike” is the term used by the manufacturers and marketers of crotch rockets. After we were at your cookout and we were driving to William’s ball game, I had one pass me on I-495 near the terminal. Actually, he passed me on the shoulder going way too fast. Probably close to 100. Given what litters the shoulder of I-495 in that area (pieces of retread tires, mufflers, tail pipes, hunks of metal, etc.) I’m surprised he didn’t hit something. If I could have read his tag number as he blew by, I would would have called the cops.