Unsafe at any speed

I drive a fast car – and sometimes I do drive fast. Now I have a real time display of all four tire pressures on the dash and I’m using Z-rated “supercar” tires designed for continuous 200 mph speeds. Still, I know it’s dangerous to drive much faster than anyone else, not that this is really possible on Florida’s interstate highways. Cruising at a ten-over-the-limit 80mph, more than half of the vehicles will pass me. Far more than half of those will be large pickups and SUVs. Statistics show that few drivers pay much attention to tire pressures, even though the Florida heat is murderous to rubber and tires rated at 75 or 80 are really over their limits when the asphalt is cooking and pressures are below optimum. Tires blow out a lot down here.

So it’s not surprising to read about the daily SUV death toll. A blown tire, something that’s happened to me more than once, can kill you, kill someone else and can kill your kids. These things are more than twice as likely to roll over and four times as likely to kill someone you hit in the process. Fatalities caused by cars being hit by safety minded mothers in SUVs now constitute a large part of overall fatalities. Not only can the 8500 pound Excursion go out of control easier and take much longer to stop or change lanes, it is almost sure to kill someone when it does.

Such gross problems with instability were solved more than half a century ago for passenger cars, but the solution was to make cars longer, lower, wider and to use more advanced suspension, not to take trucks and sell them as cars and lie about safety.

Now that we live in the post-Regan world of lies, where they can tell you that your Saab comes from jets and that four wheel drive makes you able to swerve faster in a truck than a sports car can, it’s time that someone told the truth: SUVs get in more accidents and many of those accidents happen because people believe that air bags will save them in an 80 mph rollover, that antilock brakes will make them stop on a dime and all wheel drive will let them swerve around an obstacle at 80mph. No electronic stability control will compensate for the inherently dangerous design, lack of crumple zones and collapsible roof structures of these poorly engineered vehicles. Four wheel drive makes the vehicle harder to control in a spin and may actually increase the chance of “friction rollover.” The Insurance institute for Highway Safety tells us that SUVs have similar fatality rates to small cars and higher death rates then mid-sized or large cars. The NTHSA has concluded that reducing the roll instability of inherently unstable vehicles would be prohibitive.

Many people buy SUVs to feel safe on the road. But then many people voted for George W. Bush to feel safer. Both choices are foolishly defended mistakes.