Quote:
Originally Posted by Piotrsko
In a collision between a pri and tahoe, head on at freeway speeds, your pri is going to be the brunt of a huge physics experiment regarding mass and kinetic energy.
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So everyone who buys a Prius is immoral because they put their families and themselves at a greater risk of death by headon collision or side impact? So we all should be buying Suburbans and Expeditions to transport ourselves, even if we're drive solo for the sake of safety?
But wait, you're more likely to run over your own kids in such a vehicle. You're also more likely to get into a deadly rollover. So now what? Get a Suburban, lower it as far as you can, and put crossover mirrors on the front and backup cameras in the rear?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Piotrsko
I only comment on what I have seen riding shotgun on a tow truck in a LA suburb
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Speaking of "what I've seen," I've seen many SUVs rolled over, and in many cases the driver or other occupants were dead. But I can't recall ever seeing a sedan rolled over. Also every case of someone getting ran over, even by a family member, has been ran over by an SUV or pickup.
The problem with going by "what I've seen" is that we tend to see what we prefer. If you like SUVs you're more likely to see headon collisions and think "good thing I have a large SUV." But when someone who likes SUVs sees one get into a rollover he thinks "that won't happen to me."
In our minds we can make any vehicle seem like the safest vehicle, backed up by "what I've seen" and a few half-the-story facts as well as sometimes a few outright misunderstandings or misinterpretations of the facts.
The point is that although "what if I'm in a head-on?" or "what if I'm in a rollover?" are good questions they don't really indicate the overall safety of a vehicle. Our best indicators are studies that include every possible way to die the best that they can. Overall statistics, though not a perfect indicator, do more than just head-on only statistics. Crash test and safety ratings are also a better indicator than a "my car looks safer than others" metric.