SUVs have become one of the most popular vehicles, thanks largely to a massive push by manufacturers to popularize them. Go back a few years and you hardly saw any in our cities – they were something people who worked on farms and in forestry drove.
The reason manufacturers pushed them is because they can charge more for them than for a typical family car and that boosts their profits. Yet putting more money in their pockets is proving incredibly costly to the general public.
Aren’t SUVs safer?
That’s the sales pitch and it is true to some extent. SUVs do give those inside a lot of protection. Yet they are far more dangerous to anyone that the vehicle hits, be that a pedestrian, cyclist, motorcyclist or even someone in another car. This is due to their size and weight which results in a much greater impact force transmitted to anyone they hit.
It’s also because of their high fronts. That means if they hit a pedestrian, they’ll be hitting them far higher up their body than a compact car would. As the top half of the body is where the vital organs rest, that is clearly an issue.
Finally, the beefed-up pillars of the SUVs make it much harder for their drivers to see around themselves. They create larger blind spots, so the driver is more likely to hit someone in the first place because they have a more restricted field of view.
If an SUV driver has injured you, you’ll need to learn more about your options for compensation.