Not-so-special delivery
I-75, somewhere in Kentucky, December 2008
We came across this incredibly sobering sight as we headed to Florida. With just a few days to Christmas, the gifts hanging out the window of this utterly destroyed (or, if you will, busted) Jeep Liberty served as a stark reminder of the preciousness of my own cargo.
Everything has a story. I pray it ended well for the occupants of this vehicle.
Your turn: Is it just me, or do four-wheel-drive SUVs end up disproportionately in highway ditches? Why might that be?
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17 comments:
It's not just you. Some automotive morons think 4WD = invulnerability -- until Mother Nature and certain laws of physics combine to convince them otherwise.
its the overconfidence of the driver ( including me) and the top heaviness, and lack of traction when stopping that do in SUV drivers.
i have a busted car picture. and a busted heart that I can't get a pic of. but it will recover, always does
Frank hit the nail on the head with the word "morons." It's not the SUVs in the ditch, but the disproportionate number of stupid drivers behind the wheel that put them there because they thought 4WD meant inseparable from the road at any speed.
Morons indeed. Granted, there are sensible drivers of SUVs who wind up in the ditch — or flipped onto their roofs — because of some other idiot they tried to avoid and couldn't. They are exempted from this tirade.
Ugh...a friend of mine had a devastating accident in her Jeep back in 2000. She lived but suffered (mild) permanent brain damage and her marriage collapsed after. SAD tale :(.
I think there are pictures of her wrecked vehicle, but I never saw 'em...I DID see her and that was enough!
(Yeah...my "busted" is a much happier version than this....)
:)
Farrago said it well for me, and I also think that SUV's are disproportionately tall and narrow of wheel base, and that doesn't help, especially when an idiot is driving.
Sobering indeed! aloha, Carmi
I think SUV drivers think they are invincible.
Okay, so don't quote me...that's the important part, because this is hearsay, but I once owned a truck and slid into a ditch. The ex told me something about the wheel base of trucks and suv's being "off" or possibly "not wide enough", and that the rear doesn't have enough poundage.
On second thought, he is an ex and everything he states can be classified as lies. LOL
I've always been a "minivan/compact" car kind of gal. SUVs, in my mind, are ostentatious.
Too cocky?
Precious cargo...
I am attempting my first Thematic Photographic venture...
Busted Bust
The SUV. Where a high center of gravity meets a low standard of intelligence. Just add water, shake and presto! Instant wreck.
But I think the number of SUV's in ditches might have as much to do with the percentage of SUV's on the road in general. Years ago (more than I'm going to admit.. okay, 1976) I owned a 1964 VW Beetle. A friend was ragging me about the number of broken down Beetles he saw on the side of the road on any given day. I invited him to compare that to the number of Beetles he saw on the road in a given day.
But yes, there are morons who drive SUVs just as there are morons who have no business owning $80,000 sports cars. There are also morons driving Hondas and Toyotas and Lex...ii. And motorcycles. And muscle cars. And hybrids.
Anybody can get in front of more torque than he can handle once in a while. But the standard for driver training in the US is abysmal. Basically you can get a driver's license here by promising to learn how to parallel park someday. And it doesn't matter how many gruesome horror movies they show in Driver's Ed classes anymore because the kids in the class have grown up on far more horrid fare on prime-time TV. Not that those movies were all that horrifying when I was 15 either, but now we're so immune to them they really don't have the effect they're designed to have.
Sadly, it usually takes a personal tragedy -- one that hits close to home -- to get people to wise up. Sometimes, they're fortunate enough to have a near-miss that does little or no actual damage other than perhaps to the car.
So... what is the plural of "Lexus" anyway?
Living in a CITY I find it extremely odd to see SUVs and Humvees in the street that get plowed/sanded almost as the snow is falling ... where legal parking is next to impossible to find ... I dont 'get' it ... so I sure cant explain what happens to them...
Others have already commented on the invincible mindset and the top-heavy vehicle aspects. My understanding is that 4WD helps a great deal with starting in poor conditions --a whole lot more than it does with stopping. I love my minivan. There, I said it.
(I also loved my big ol' pickup truck, but it made me feel cocky and tough...and it was only a rear-wheel-drive rig.)
don't know about the SUV thingy, but really liked this post - another reminder to live fully this moment.
I totally agree about the SUV's. I travel on hwy 401 everyday and I've seen quite a few SUV's off the road. I had quite the heated discussion with my boss regarding which was best for winter driving, winter tires or 4wd. I'm sold on the winter tires. My hubby loves his Jeep but he understands it's limitations.
On behalf of actual safe drivers of JEEPS, I'd like to say that we haven't ever dumped ours, rolled it, landed on our heads or anything.
HOWEVER, our Jeep is the real deal - not some sissy SUV. Lifted, big tires, made for climbing all over the place. And we've taken it to a lot of those places.
My favorite? Moab. You stick to the rocks like flypaper. You can actually drive nearly vertical and it is a blast! I drove the day we did Fins & Things and it was so cool.
Sadly, there are many who will tarnish the reputation because they're overconfident, oblivious, or just plain foolish. I think Mojo hit it on the head.
I, too, hope that the occupants of that particular vehicle were all okay.
We've had our jeep for 15 years now, and it's the one thing we never sell.
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