DracoFelis
Premium
join:2003-06-15
| Small car safety.
said by safe driver :
There's no way you can possibly see every situation that could occur on the road. Ever hear of drunk drivers for example? Many accidents happen to people who are very very safe drivers. Just because you pay attention doesn't mean you can't have an accident on the road.
True. However:
1) As others have pointed out, smaller cars are generally much more maneuverable, and otherwise LESS LIKELY to get into accidents in the first place. And the best way to survive an accident, is to not get in it to begin with!
2) As others have said, it's not true that small cars don't have safety features that work amazingly well in a crash. And while I'm not proud of this experience by any mean, I can give you one small example from my own experience:
Many years ago (back when I was an inexperienced teen driver), I survived with little more than a few bruises an almost head on HIGHWAY SPEED (Winter) crash between the family COMPACT CAR (sliding over the dividing line and) hitting a full size pickup! Yes, the whole front end (i.e. the engine compartment) of the small car was collapsed to less than 1/2 it's normal size, and the car I was in was TOTALED. But the COMPACT CAR I was in was designed (as many small cars are designed) to sacrifice the engine compartment (i.e. everything in front of the so-called "firewall" in the car) in a crash, in order to protect the car occupants from harm. And that worked so well, that my only "injuries" were minor bruises from my safety belt keeping me with the car, during these very violent forces in play. Sadly the driver of the pickup (a vehicle MUCH BIGGER than the one I was driving) didn't fare so well. While he recovered, he had to go to the hospital for is injuries (which included broken bones)! And my story is by no means unique.
So really, while the auto makers have been parading that myth of the big vehicles being safer for years (in part, because it helps them sell bigger, higher profit, vehicles), small cars can still do a good job of protecting the occupants should a crash occur. Sadly, I know first hand about this little fact!
3) And while it is true that all other things being equal (and as already pointed out, all other things may not be equal), the vehicles with the crash advantage in a collision is the bigger/heaver one, that DOES NOT mean that bigger heaver vehicles are "safer". Remember, the only reason why a bigger/heaver vehicle might make you SLIGHTLY SAFER in a crash, is because your vehicle may be the bigger/heaver one. i.e. any increased "safety" for you, comes at the cost of making other drivers "less safe" (more likely to suffer injury in an accident, due to your big/heavy truck ramming into them)!
But (and this is key), it's not the extra weight per se that may make you "safer", it's the weight differential between your vehicle and the other vehicle in the crash. As surprising as it sounds to some, two heaver trucks hitting each other are noticeably more likely to have everyone involved in the crash hurt, than two light cars hitting each other (under the same road conditions and speed). And the reason is simple, adding weight to the vehicles actually increases the damaging forces involved in a crash!
[SOAPBOX]
So if you really want to make it safer for people on the road to survive crashes, work to get those big heavy (so-called "safe") trucks/SUVs/etc off the road, so that most crashes occur between light (more fuel effect) vehicles, and therefore are less serious (and more likely to be survived) crashes! Because (as surprising as it is to some, given the prevalence of "the big vehicle is safe" myth, our highways would actually be MUCH SAFER if many of those vans/SUVs/pickups/etc were replaced with smaller commuter cars...
[/SOAPBOX] |
TexasPlus
join:2004-06-16
Bedford, TX
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| reply to safe driver
Re: Why is gas/oil going so high?
said by safe driver :
@ Texas Plus
There's no way you can possibly see every situation that could occur on the road. Ever hear of drunk drivers for example? Many accidents happen to people who are very very safe drivers. Just because you pay attention doesn't mean you can't have an accident on the road.
What you said is true. I look at this from the optimistic point of view, it is obvious from your tone that your looking at it from the fatalistic point of view. Every choice we make in life is a gamble, and odds are we will both get our wish. 
Now what do you suppose the odds are if one does not pay attention?
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"The world is a book; those who do not travel read but a single page." -St. Augustine |
