[extropy-chat] Driver safety and the immortalist

[Mike Lorrey]

--- BillK <pharos at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, 6 Jul 2004 22:50:58 -0700, Spike <spike66 at comcast.net> wrote:
> 
> It seems to me that blaming bad weather and bad roads for the poor 
> accident record of SUVs is stretching the point a bit.
> 
> Car drivers take more care in bad weather. SUVs may make drivers
> over-confident and too reckless in bad weather.
> 
> But the big problem with SUVs seems to be roll-overs.

Yes, but again, this is a driver problem, not a vehicle problem.
Drivers used to sitting with their butts less than 4" from the pavement
consider much higher G's on cornering and skidding to be acceptable.
When they get into an SUV, they don't realize that a 1 G cornering is
going to feel like a lot less when they are a foot or more in the air,
so they are surprised when their vehicle starts to roll over (the
higher center of gravity of the vehicle itself is just one thing, but
the driver should also be aware of this as well). This is especially
considering that the Gs are generally felt in the ears, which are
reclined in econoboxes and sports coupes, but are raised and upright in
SUVs.

This all being said, I've seen a LOT more sports coupes sitting atop
highway snow banks than I've seen SUVs rolled over any time of year.

=====
Mike Lorrey
Chairman, Free Town Land Development
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.
It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
                                         -William Pitt (1759-1806) 
Blog: http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=Sadomikeyism


		
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail - You care about security. So do we.
http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail