Originally Posted By: OVERK1LL
There are far more SUV's and cars on the roads in most of North America than there are transport trucks however.
So while both are likely headed for a spot on the concrete when involved in a head-on with a transport, the likelihood of you getting in an accident with a car or SUV is far more likely.
How many people in this thread have been in an accident? Now how many of them have been with a car, truck or SUV? How about with a transport?
Exactly.
I have been in three accidents involving other vehicles in my life:
1. Involved my Explorer and a Crown Victoria
2. Involved my Explorer and a Subaru WRX
3. Involved my Expedition and getting rear-ended by a Chrysler Van.
That, as a data sample is two cars, a van and two different SUV's, LOL!
In all of the above, the SUV made out significantly better than the other vehicles involved. That has been my experience.
I've never been in an accident with a transport, hope never to be in an accident with a transport, and statistically, am far more likely to get in an accident with another car than I am with a transport. I am not naive enough to think that the Expedition is going to fair well against a Kenworth.
However
We do know, that an F-250 vs a Camry (IIRC), that the results were five people dead in the Camry, everybody without injury in the truck.
I agree. My previous post was addressed at a poster who seemed to posit facts where it suited them, and citing laws of physics to support them, and then dismissed outright how those very same laws applied in my example not because they were unlikely, but because he dismissed the same Newtonian Physics because they didn't fit with his bias.
Your argument, on the other hand, is a reasoned one and comes to a perfectly correct conclusion.
I've been in 2 accidents: one as a pedestrian where I was hit by an SUV (described up thread), and one where I flipped and rolled a Hyundai Accent on the TCH after being cut off and locking up the brakes to avoid hitting the van that cut me off (the car went into an immediate skid, and within 1-2 seconds the wheels touched the snowy shoulder whereupon it flipped and traveled about 30' before touching down and rolling multiple times).
The second accident I literally walked away from, although the insurance covered the damage even though they could have just as easily written it off. In the first, I had the wind so badly knocked out of me that I spent a night on a respirator and several more days in hospital on morphine and under observation. No permanent injuries (not even a single broken bone).
Both times I essentially walked away from accidents that looked so bad they defy any reason on sight as to how it could have been so (the SUV that hit me had its windshield smashed in, A pillar crumpled, and driver's mirror tore off from impact and when I rolled off it laterally and onto the pavement, face first).
As a result of both, I'm a much more careful and cautious driver than I was even 5 years ago (let alone 20 years ago) but refuse to allow fear to motivate my decisions. This was something I learned after being ripped up at age 5 by a loose dog, resulting in 30 stitches to my face, neck, and scalp (no scars other than faint and easily concealed ones on my scalp). I was very intimidated after by large dogs and it could have easily developed into a full fledged phobia.
Instead over time I forced myself to engage with them and by the time I hit puberty there was no lingering fear at all (and I've since encountered loose and aggressive dogs that opted not to try and attack because I don't show the very fear that they so easily detect and readily act upon).
My mom was also in a head on collision on the TCH with another car while pregnant with me. She was driving, my aunt and grandmother were also in the car. This was before people wore seatbelts, and none of them had them. My mom survived completely uninjured (save a scratch on her ankle), my aunt had abrasions but was otherwise uninjured, my grandmother who was between them nearly died (ruptured spleen, multiple fractured ribs, extensive internal bleeding). She made a full recovery after several months of hospitalization.
I suppose that is technically 3 strikes for me. Though except for an impression in my upper thigh from the top edge of the bumper of the SUV that severed hamstring muscle tissue in that impact, you would never know it.
All of this is why, and in having seen people killed in less severe accidents than what I walked away from, I don't buy into the brand of fear that some people sell and themselves buy into with a false sense of immortality conferred upon them by what they drive (had a rolled an SUV instead of an Accent, we might not be having this discussion - life is full of 'what ifs'). When your number is up, its up. Meantime I learned from the age of 5 onward not to cow down to something larger than I am, and there is no way that's about to change 22 years later.
Nobody lives forever. Enjoy what you have now and make the most of it.
-Spyder
