1 video is worth 1000 words - SUV rollover

I remember a situation very similar to this in my Datsun 280Z. I was forced off the highway onto the median and came back onto the road at a bad angle, causing me to spin out once the tires hit pavement again.

The difference is that my wheels stayed on the ground, the car didn't crash, and nobody was hurt. This SUV *WANTS* to roll over, just look at how wrong it handles. It is a completely unsafe vehicle to travel in at highway speeds. They should govern these things to a max speed of 40 mph.

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Pat

Reply to
pws
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pws wrote in news:ocxdg.65457$ snipped-for-privacy@tornado.texas.rr.com:

Like almost all rollovers, that had nothing to do with the SUV, it was driver error. He/she/it apparently jerked the wheel back to the right. Had he/she/it stayed on the median and slowed way down before trying to get back onto the highway there would have been no rollover.

Ever see the magazine results (Car and Driver maybe?) where they demonstrated all the Ford Explorer rollovers supposedly caused by Firestone tire blowouts were, in fact, driver stupidity? There's no doubt the tires were defective but in the hands of a capable driver the Explorer was able to stop after a blowout every time from every tested speed in a straight line with no skidding, sliding, etc. As an interesting sidelight, they had the tester take his hands off the wheel when the tire blew, again, a straight line stop with no swerving or skidding.

To paraphrase another basic truth, SUVs don't cause accidents, drivers cause accidents.

As long as we license anyone to drive, we'll continue to have accidents. I once suggested a simple three phase test that EVERY driver should pass to a MVD tester, he said it would take 97% of drivers off the road! We don't test drivers simply because too much of our economy depends on everyone owning a motor vehicle.

Reply to
XS11E

call it driver stupidity if you wish, but i suspect it is exactly the sort of thing that the overwhelming majority of drivers would do in the same situation. if there is any stupidity on the drivers part i would conclude that was making the decision to purchase the vehicle. sure you could blame the manufacturers for the ease which the vehicle can be flipped, but if a buyer is aware of these issues and still bought what they perceived to be a 'big' and 'safe' suv then that is up to them. i hope they survived and that no children were on board.

ps. did you notice how the guy that started the interaction didn't bother to stop? the police camera shows a clear view of the shoulder at the end of the clip and he/she wasn't in it. how could they live with themselves? i suspect the police caught up with them too.

Reply to
Christopher Muto

The two of us would not agree that the sky is blue on a clear day.

If you don't think that a ridiculously high center of gravity along with an awful suspension had anything to do with this rollover, then you are simply wrong. Physics can prove that for anyone to see. You see, SUV's are more prone to rollovers than cars, in case you haven't seen the news for the last 15 years or so.

You are correct about what the driver should have done, but what I am pointing out is what did happen in this "oh shit" case where the driver did the wrong thing. I also did the same wrong move in my 70's technology Z-car, I was an inexperienced driver. The fact that I was driving a vehicle that was suited for driv9ing on the road kept me alive. If I had been in that SUV, I would have been seriously injured or killed, along with my passenger.

Pat

Reply to
pws

Exactly.

Yes, so many people that drive these things think that they are safe, when one of the most important things to do in an emergency situation is to keep your tires on the ground. It is very hard to control the vehicle while it is rolling, and safety restraint systems were not designed to be of much help when the thing is crushing in like a tin can from repeated impacts with the ground.

Again, I agree. If they did survive, it would be nice to see them try to educate people about the dangers of driving a vehicle that is so incapable of recovery from an emergency situation.

I hope so too, it looks like 100% agreement here. :-)

Pat

Reply to
pws

Hah. Bet you a dollar the first thing on their agenda was shopping for a

*larger* SUV ("Bigger is safer, you know.").

It would be interesting to investigate a hypothesis that there's a direct relationship between the number of cupholders in a vehicle and its accident rate...

Reply to
Lanny Chambers

Hey, it was just a pipe dream. I am not taking that bet at any odds. I need my dollar.

Hasn't that already been established? ;-)

Seriously, do you think that your former 240Z, your current miata, or your Accord might have stayed exhaust-side down in the situation shown in that video, even if the vehicle were driven by that same person?

"Rollover proof" would be great, but that is not possible. "Rollover prone", however, is terrible, and it is very easy to avoid if you don't drive these Sorry Unsafe Vehicles.

Pat

Reply to
pws

i hope they survived and that

This accident was shown the other day on one of those 'Police, Crash, Artery, Spurt, Courtcase' programs. It was stated that the driver of the SUV survived with barely a scratch - aren't seatbelts good?

There was no mention of the prat who started the whole sorry tale.

Incidentally, Whilst I agree that SUV's have an alarming tendency to fall over ( did anyone here see Top Gear and the Range Rover ??) who amongst us would have done any better after being sideswiped at speed ?? in any vehicle ??

Boz

Reply to
Robert Boswell

"Christopher Muto" wrote in news:u6Fdg.19$VL2.15@trnddc06:

Yup. That doesn't make it less stupid or less wrong. It's a pity we don't train drivers.

Now that's a totally wrong statement. People have SUVs for the same reason I do, because they're the only vehicles that can do the job that needs doing. If I could have only one vehicle it would be the SUV.

Yes, I hope the police caught him/her/it but who knows?

Reply to
XS11E

pws wrote in news:RgFdg.60184$ snipped-for-privacy@tornado.texas.rr.com:

We could if you'd just stop being wrong about everything. ;-)

Reply to
XS11E

Hard to say. WMV9 won't play on my old Mac.

Reply to
Lanny Chambers

Lanny Chambers wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@newsclstr02.news.prodigy.com:

There's just dozens of places that will sell you a new computer, either Mac or PC. Just gather up huge quantities of money and visit any one of them.*

*You really don't need huge quantities of money to buy a new Mac or PC but you'll need gas to get there!

BTW, I paid under $3.00/gal yesterday at Sam's Club when I filled the Miata, it seems to be dropping a cent or two per day here, it was $3.05 about 4 days ago....

Reply to
XS11E

which job is that? the job to intimate smaller cars (miata)? the job of making an owner/driver feel more important than everyone else arround them and give a false sense of safety and security? or the job is to consume obscene amounts of gas to collect children from school and to collect groceries? the last one being the one i see most often employed.

Reply to
Christopher Muto

"Christopher Muto" wrote in news:LQKdg.617$hv1.379@trnddc01:

My Jeep Grand Cherokee does that very well.

It also allows me to get around because it carries this:

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and this:

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and the 4 Wheel Drive allows me to get out into the desert and explore the back roads from time to time.

It does that very well also.

Reply to
XS11E

How the hell are you going to carry two rifle cases, four 48 qt coolers, tents, sleeping bags and food for three days in a Mata?

How about a set of sails?

Or a baby, baby seat, stroller, and diaper bag?

Reply to
M. Cantera

Now that's what I call playing nice!

When I was young, stupid and inexperienced, I totaled out my first car with a move that must have looked very similar to this with the exception of needing another driver as a 'catalyst'. No kidding, I did it all on my own!

When I was 16 (young / inexperienced) I was driving home sleepy one night real late (stupid / inexperienced) after having just a bit to drink (STUPID / INEXPERIENCED) and fell asleep at the wheel. I think the sound of gravel woke me up (could that happen over say, Ted Nugent?) and when I opened my eyes I was half on pavement and half off with a guard rail right in front of me! I probably hit the brakes hard cause I immediately shot off across the road at a 45 degree angle, went nose first down into the center ditch and flipped 2 or 3 times end over end before coming to rest sitting on the inside roof of my upside-down Vega GT. Seatbelts? who needed friggin' seatbelts in those days right?

That wasn't a fun call to Dad! This event was an early and clear message to me that I've never had to relearn, thank God.

Chris middleageandslightlylessstupidIhope

99BBB
Reply to
Chris D'Agnolo

It's not the money, it's the OS. My preferred professional software requires OS 9, which new Macs can't run, or even emulate. If the new MacBook could boot into OS 9, I'd buy one in a heartbeat. As it is, I'd have to buy current versions of all my software (about $6k worth), and tolerate an OS that's long on eye candy but short on real function.

Obviously, I'm not too keen on that (or on buying a PC and 200 virus checkers) just to play Windoze movies. OS X is not my cup of tea, anyway--the prospect of maintaining a bug-filled unix system gives me the willies. I have no desire to learn another OS, when there's no functional advantage to it. I don't find that sort of thing as much fun as I used to.

Reply to
Lanny Chambers

I'm a Mac guy by preference and profession, Lanny. What software are you using?

And believe me, as much as I disagreed (and to some extent, still disagree) with the interface changes, I would never go back to Mac OS 9.

Reply to
Alan Baker

The high centre of *mass* (people make that mistake all the time) played a roll, of course, but unless there's an SUV out there using a swing arm suspension, the suspension didn't play any role at all.

SUVs are suited for driving on the road. They just have different limits.

Reply to
Alan Baker

mini van. the mini van being much more versatile, safer, and more fuel efficient than other options for hauling large things. of course you do have to overcome insecurities of what other people think of you before you buy one, but owning a miata means having already done that (most everyone thinks the car is a toy you know). once you do i bet you will be convinced that the only possible reason to drive a suv is to go off road but in reality few ever do, and because of environmental concerns there are ever fewer places off road to take them.

Reply to
Christopher Muto

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