I'm sure you all know that most SUV's, built on truck chassis, are
exempt from federal rules on safety that are applied to cars. I saw a
video recently of one of those tiny little Smart cars hitting a wall at
like 60 miles an hour and the passenger surviving just fine. Last year
the vehicle that you were most likely to die in a head-on collision was
a Ford F-150, which I believe is the frame of the Ford Explorer. One of
the reasons the SUV's are the most profitable for the manufacturers.
I know my little BMW Z4 is far safer in an accident than my F-250 tow
vehicle. I would bet the Tiger is safer than either, because there's no
way I'm going to test the Tiger in such a situation ;-)
Chris
Theo Smit wrote:
> A couple of years ago a guy in a SUV tried to dodge a deer in the middle
> of the highway just outside the city limits here. Lost control, went off
> the road, a wheel dug in and the SUV flipped, ejecting the passenger
> (who wasn't wearing a seatbelt). The passenger was dead at the scene.
>
> The morals of that incident are:
> If you have a SUV then you have to recognize that dodging anything is
> not an option. The reason you bought that behemoth was so that you'd
> "win" in any collision; so don't try to avoid them when the opportunity
> presents itself. Second thing is that seatbelts still save lives
> regardless of how big your vehicle is... if you're not in it, then
> you're nowhere.
>
> As it happens I drove my Tundra today for the first time in several
> weeks - my commuter car is an Echo now. Whatever safety gain the Tundra
> has in bulk, it loses on not being able to get out of its own way, and
> lack of visibility to the rear quarters.
>
> Theo
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