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People buy small cars even though they can be deadly.
Americans are buying more small cars to cut fuel costs, and that might kill them.
As a group, occupants of small cars are more likely to die in crashes than those in bigger, heavier vehicles are, according to data from the government, the insurance industry and the National Academy of Sciences (NAS).
The newest small vehicles, of course, meet today's strict safety standards and can be laden with the latest safety hardware, such as stability control and side air bags. They are safer than ever. And differing designs mean some small cars are safer than average. But even the safest are governed by the laws of physics, which rule in favor of bigger, heavier vehicles, even in single-vehicle crashes.
If the switch to smaller, lighter vehicles continues to grow, the result could be anywhere from dozens to thousands of traffic deaths that would have been avoided in bigger vehicles, according to fatality records and safety forecasters. The number depends on how many bigger, heavier vehicles ultimately are replaced by smaller, lighter cars.
I heard this story this afternoon on Rush Limbaugh. He even had this hilarious song about a small car avoiding hitting a baby goose only to be hit by a Hummer or something.
I own a car about the size of the previous generation Honda Accord, its not tiny, but may be considered "small" by others. I really don't see the need to own a large car..95% of the time I drive alone. Smaller cars are just so much more maneverable and fuel efficient
When that's what everyone is driving then yes I'll buy smaller.
Just this morning driving to work on Interstate 80 in the pouring rain...little mini cooper amongst all the big rigs, the suvs....cute but looks like a little pregnant roller skate, nah wouldn't feel safe in one
Small cars wouldn't be as deadly if everyone drove them.
My sentiments exactly. Heaven forbid the status-conscious residents of the Sunbelt traded-in their needless four-wheel-drive massive Hummers, Suburbans, and Escalades for something more fuel-efficient that would improve our environment and safety on the roadways, right?
As the driver of a small vehicle (Ford Contour) I'm well aware of the risk involved by driving one of these while eveyone else in Scranton drives a Range Rover. While exiting the freeway last summer I stopped at a red light and was rear-ended by a Jeep Grand Cherokee not once but twice (he was on his cell phone and mistook the gas pedal for the brake pedal once he hit me). I was left with so much pain and muscle strain in my neck that I couldn't move it from side to side for several days, and my mother rushed me to the emergency room to make sure I didn't suffer any sort of permanent nerve damage. I could have very easily sued this guy for my lost wages and pain and suffering as a result of this accident, but I opted not to since I'm a nice guy.
The real "kicker" of that accident was that while he only had a little bit of gold paint on his front bumper, my Contour's rear-end crumpled like an accordion with nearly $3,000 in damage, furthering my resolve to never buy a Ford again if they're such death-traps.
The old adage of "SUVs are better in the snow" is also a farce. I've repeatedly driven my Contour in the snow with little problems, yet the one day my mother forced me to take her Subaru Forester to work on account of it being "safer," I was in a fender-bender when my slow-moving vehicle was unable to turn left into our parking lot and instead went straight into one of those landscaped median dividers (an action repeated by many other motorists around me due to the ice storm). I bent the front-right wheel of my mom's SUV and flattened the tire. Others went right up and over the median and back into the parking lot. I would have felt much better in a smaller vehicle.
I don't know why so many dopes run out and buy SUVs under the guise of them being "safer." If these lemmings would all suddenly stop buying them and buy Priuses instead, we'd have less larger vehicles to have to worry about being hit by. Many tractor-trailers that travel long distances could also be taken off the roadways with their materials being transported by rail instead. It's only dangerous to drive a small car because everyone else keeps on buying bigger vehicles. I refuse to become one of these "lemmings" (the same ones who shop at Wal-Mart and then whine about Chinese imports or dead Main Streets).
When the front bumper of your Chevy Tahoe reaches the top of the trunk of someone else's sedan...of course you would have a better chance..but you put others at risk! Up in the North East you see more sedans than you do trucks/SUV's...not to say that they're not popular, but not in the numbers you see down south or in Texas.
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That's funny. Rep point for you buddy.
