Impact of SUVs in a crash

[MassiveCars]

Recently there was a terrible accident involving a 2 ton car
What stood out was the mention of the weight of the vehicle
So I did a couple of calcs
An SUV of 1972kg doing 30mph has the same Kinetic Energy of a small car of 1221kg doing 38mph
A larger SUV of 2598kg has the same Kinetic Energy of a small car of 1221kg doing 44mph
All these large SUVs doing 30mph create the same damage as a smaller car doing 38mph to 44mph
There must be enough maths & physics teachers on here to check this out
I did think of mentioning the small car and the big car types ?

But large SUVs (=large weight) are a much more serious danger to kids at 30mph than your small cars at 30mph

There is great emphasis on 30mph, perhaps we should enforce slower speeds for heavier vehicles if safety is the objective

How can you have different speed limits for different types of vehicle on "normal" urban roads?

the same way that they already do now

What standard urban roads (ie 30mph) have a different limit for different vehicles?

One area of governmental stupidity is that crew cab pick up trucks are classed for tax purposes as a "van" meaning much lower benefit in kind tax rates as a "works vehicle", VAT being reclaimable in full, etc., so highly popular for the self employed who don't actually need a pick up truck (and their wives/girlfriends!). So that alone explains why there are so many crew cab pick up trucks on the school run!

Where and how??

There are too many cars and they are all too big, it should be illegal to drive distances of less than five miles imo

@SamanthaCaine a deer jumped out of bushes at the side of the road in front of them. Nothing to do with DH’s driving or the speed they were travelling at. Unless they were driving at 5mph per hour they would have hit it. And, as you will know, driving at 5mph on a 60mph road is very dangerous in itself.

Really? This again?

The vast majority of those driving from countryside into London will be private. Because you don't travel that far into London for school otherwise. Obviously there will be a minority this isn't true for, but majority of the time.

What I find baffling about this thread is how everyone seems to assume that the minute someone gets behind the wheel of any car pedestrians will be bouncing off them left, right, and center. Are you all that bad at driving? In all my years of being a driver the only living creature I’ve hit was a stupid bird that flew right into my front grill. (I did feel bad for the poor thing).

Yes it’s always tragic when something like that happens, but the risk is relatively small in day to day life. What I really find distasteful is when people use tragedies like this to push their own agenda. Now that’s crass.

Obviously speed does matter, as per the OPs correct statement about kinetic energy. There's not a great deal we can do if a deer jumps right in front of you but if that were the case, your DH wouldn't even have had time to react and brake.

30mph is perfectly adequate if you have a definite risk of killing or being killed. I've done this and had time to react. At 40, that time would've been reduced significantly. At 50 or 60, no chance.

We can debate this till the cows come home but the fact is, the severity of these accidents is largely defined by the speed you're driving.

I guess the important question is whether your DH still drives those roads at the same speed or has learnt nothing at all and continues to drive to the speed limits.

How bloody ridiculous.
Some of us are working mums. I have just enough time to get to work from dropping off the kids if I'm in the car. If I walked the kids to school and then walked home again I would be 30 minutes late.
The same happens on the way home, just enough time to drive to the school from work. Not an option to drop the car at home first and walk to pick them up.
and YES- I drive a big monstrosity of an SUV because I have a horse and need to tow a trailer.
and YES- I passed my driving test and trailer test first time with minimal faults because I can fucking drive.

Goodness me, you sound very stressed!

@SamanthaCaine yes he bloody did have time to react because he’s very aware as a driver. This is an A road 40 miles from London, not the highlands of Scotland. Driving at 30 on a 60 road in normal conditions is dangerous because people become annoyed and overtake in dangerous places causing accidents.

And he wasn’t driving at the speed limit anyway so stop being so judgmental.

Oreosareawful, there are other options for plenty of parents that do not involve driving or walking, not everyone owns a car and yet they get their kids to school and go to work

Clearly driving works best for Oreoareawful. or are you insinuating that she isn’t intelligent enough to have know those other options existed?

@Sigmama the headteacher at our local primary told people in our hamlet (1.5 miles from the school) not to walk our children to school as it is a 60mph road and he doesn’t consider it safe. I think he’s right. As there’s no school transport or public bus, we can either dice with death or drive. What would you do?

My oldest DS’s secondary school is 8 miles away and there is no school transport. The school bus starts after nine. How do you suggest he gets to school?

Obviously some people need to drive to school, the wider argument is how we encourage change in terms of better public transport, safer roads etc, things can change.

I think her life would be much easier if she could get rid of the horse which has been imposed upon her 🤷
That did appear to be her chief complaint, that she has to have the SUV because of the horse obviously the solution is get rid of the horse, it sounds like a complete nuisance!

I must have missed her complaining about the horse. Where was that?

I thought there was an obligation for transport to be provided if school is more than 3 miles away?? I grew up rural and I know school buses had to be provided from the villages more than 4 miles away.

I'm being judgemental because you're making terrible excuses, not just for owning an SUV, butfor your husband when it's obvious driving more slowly is the answer. I live by the M1 in Buckinghamshire, so what. Deer deer don't just live in the Highlands.

The most obvious flaw in your continuous defense of your husband, is that a slower speed could've prevented the accident entirely. So what if people want to risk overtaking. Let them shoulder the risk. I don't, and is probably why I've not nearly died.

@justteanbiscuits only if you go to the catchment school. Our catchment school is 7.5 miles away. My DS goes to the second closest 8 miles away in the opposite direction.

Are you serious? I should get rid of my much loved equine pet so I can have a small car to drive near the school?
My point was that an SUV is the ideal vehicle for me, as it is for a lot of people, which is why car manufacturers sell so many of them.

So no complaints then about your horse, it didn’t somehow hold you hostage until you bought an SUV to take it for long drives in the country 🤣

@Oreosareawful you have taken a test with the vehicle you drive and a trailer. So you are the 1 in 100 who has reason for a larger vehicle, what about the other 99?

Most of the SUVs that are allegedly necessary for the steep 1 in 25 slope on a half mile journey are driven by people who took a test in something the size of a Nissan Micra. The figures for cars used for journeys to and from school were that a third only went home-school-home, and that was figures before wfh was a possibility, so possibly more.