http://www.webmediainc.com/54157PT/PeshtigoTimes.taf?function=detail&Layout1_uid2=13353An outfit affiliated with the insurance industry, called the Highway Safety Institute, periodically puts out crash-test news releases demonstrating how vulnerable sub-compact and compact cars are in collisions.
The most recent ones tested were the Chevrolet Cobalt, Hyandai Elantra, New Beetle, and others and they were subjected to side impacts from a device that duplicates the mass and speed of an SUV going 31 miles per hour.
Dodge Neon and the others showed that when hit broadside by an SUV or pickup, they would fare poorly.
A photo along with the Associate Press article shows a Dodge Neon 4-door caved in on the driver's side. The Toyota Corolla fared slightly better than some of the other cars, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to notice that it is bigger and heavier than the others.
A high school physics teacher could explain that it all comes down to velocity and relative mass.
The results would be better for, say, a Metro if the Metro broadsides a motorcycle, and the heavy thinkers at the Highway Safety Institute would solemnly give their opinions that the motorcycle driver would probably suffer severe injuries or death.
One of the biggest 300 horsepower SUV's could be flattened out like an aluminum beer car if hit broadside by a loaded semi traveling at highway speed.
And a man on a bicycle, hit broadside by a motor scooter, might not walk away from the crash without a noticeable limp.
A car is purely a utilitarian thing for me, a way of getting from place to place. I have been driving small cars, starting with Volkswagen Beetles, Ford Pintos, and other economy cars since about 1960, going on to a Metro and more recently a Toyota, and I am always conscious of my vulnerability. The reason for driving compact cars comes down to miles per gallon. They are light and have smaller engines that use less gas.
Every time the price of gas goes up, a bunch of letters to the editors come in to newspapers from big SUV drivers who allege a conspiracy among oil corporations and evil local gas station owners.
Coming back from the Lena School Board meetings after dark, I always notice there are a lot of semis rolling along south on US 41 at 65 or 70. I am well aware that my car would be folded up like an accordion if I am hit head-on, and my estate would be in probate shortly after the closed coffin ceremonials.
I don't need the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety to run crash tests on Toyotos vs. semi rigs to establish the results of such an impact.
I don't need a 300-horsepower behemoth of a car to get me to and from Peshtigo and to prove how much testosterone is throbbing along my veins.
I predict $3 per gallon gas in a year or two.
That might bring about a rational redesign of motor vehicles, stressing utility and economy instead of sheer bulk. The days of "bigger is better" are numbered.I actually like this guy, he usually does not get too political, just usually tells people what things were like when he was a kid, and sometimes tells some of his WWII stories.
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