Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2012/03/07
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]This is clearly the best policy! Having a nimble good handling car with good brakes means you may well avoid an accident other cars would inevitably have. OTOH if you're going to get hit by a big truck driven by an incompetent/distracted driver, best to be in something well designed for impact! Two things make a lot of difference. 1. Many licensed drivers are not actually very good at driving, though few admit it. Nobody assumes that at the age of 16, with a small amount of acclimatisation and training, that everybody would be a good footballer etc (fill in your own choice of skill) but -everybody gets a chance of the freedom of driving. This means that a very large number of people out there are actually a bit/lot beyond their capability driving. On top of that IME the people who are most nervous drivers usually choose a big SUV since they feel safer in it, even though tall cars usually skid further and/or roll over. This means the least competent drivers are usually equipped to do the most damage and be the most dangerous. 2. There are very strict rules for the impact resistance of cars and measures for protecting pedestrians. These include the specification of bumper height, which is kept low so that pedestrians are swept onto the car rather than run over, for example. There is also a regulation about deformability of the parts of the car which a pedestrian may hit, for example there needs to be quite a big clearance nowadays over the engine, for example. This control means that front and side impact height is known and the structures designed accordingly. The low bumpers also mean the floorpan of the car takes a lot of the impact, which is good for passenger protection. What makes a mockery of all this work and effort over the last 40 years or so is, of course, trucks don't have the same regulations Duh! They have high bumpers which almost guarantee they do serious damage to pedestrians, and in sideswipe accidents where they hit the middle of the door opening. Etc.. If it wasn't for the fact that plenty of people who don't have enough money to own a car and a truck, and need the truck for work, I would favour banning trucks from towns. cheers, FD On 6 Mar, 2012, at 20:25, Ken Iisaka wrote: > But again, the best strategy is not to get in an accident, period.