To ask you to sign this petition to stop SUVs being driven on a standard car licence?

[dontbenastyhaveapasty]

I saw this petition, and it seems like a good idea to me.

What happened at the school in Wimbledon today is too horrible to ever let it happen again. The sheer size and weight of SUVs makes them deadly to anyone they hit. And they’re totally unnecessary for 90% of their users.

Click this link to sign the petition:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/640774/sponsors/new?token=yeP8ehx43vxfZNaYPaLi

My petition:
Ban SUVs from the list of vehicles that can be driven on a standard car licence

SUVs are unnecessarily dangerous to pedestrians and cyclists. Their size, weight and bonnet design result in death or serious injury that would not be caused by a similar collision in a car. The law around their categorisation needs to be revised to restrict SUV use.

Following the appalling tragedy at a school in Wimbledon, the danger SUVs pose to children has again been highlighted. Large heavy vehicles with high square bonnets are too dangerous to be a standard domestic vehicle type. Please legislate to prevent their use as a conventional domestic car. This could be by revising licence categories so SUV is a separate class, or by changing the law on vehicle design to outlaw “cars” with high or square bonnets or over a certain weight.

Click this link to sign the petition:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/640774/sponsors/new?token=yeP8ehx43vxfZNaYPaLi

🙄🙄🙄🙄

Literally ANY car driven dangerously can kill anyone.

And even a 3.5t horse lorry can be driven on an ordinary licence.

Lots of suvs were originally built on the same floor plan as estate cars.
so x5’s we’re 5 series, x3s 3 series etc etc.
volkswagen have one floor plan for lots of different ones they just put different bodies on.

today was heartbreaking. It really was and there’s an argument for the weight of cars to be limited as it’s dangerous and ruining our roads. But it’s not suvs.

An old man near me had a heart attack at the wheel of his fiesta two years ago and ploughed into a beer garden causing a death and some serious injuries...

My "suv" isn't a fuel guzzler either

Most SUV's are no bigger than a standard car, many are smaller, you have better vision because you are higher up.

Other than the heavy ones like Land Rover most SUV only weigh the same as standard cars.

Agree any vehicle would have resulted in a similar outcome, whether it was a small car, saloon, estate, people carrier or van! The vehicle went straight through a fence across the garden and into the children sitting at the tables only stopped by the school building! Must have been at some speed if the fence didn’t slow it down and those kids didn’t have time to jump out of its way.

The road WAS 20mph from what I read so it’s boggling that it went through the fence and carried on if it was within the speed limit.

Unbelievable random thing to happen on probably the one day they were outside having their party, going through a fence as well.

The driver has been arrested for dangerous driving as reported in the news so nothing to do with the size of car.

Horrendous for the poor parents of the little girl who died, and for those injured, but this petition is a knee jerk reaction which is not helpful to them.

Probably better to raise awareness of pulling over immediately if you start to feel unwell, or not driving at all, if this was due to medical episode.

The vehicle wasn't the problem, the driver suffered a medical emergency

Where did you get this information @MintJulia ?

That's daft. They are just as eat to drive as a "normal" car.

On a car licence you can drive up to a 3.5 ton lorry

Personal thoughts on SUV's aside, a Vauxhall Astra driven blindly through a hedge at a group of unsuspecting schoolchildren sitting on the grass would have had the same effect.

All of this.

Absolute tragic incident, not helped in any way by this knee jerk reaction.

What would the SUV test be - ‘do you plan to drive into a school? No? Excellent, you’ve passed!’

What a load of nonsense, sorry.

I can drive a 7.5 tonner on mine! (Passed early 1990s.)

@dontbenastyhaveapasty I actually agree you that these Chelsea tractor monsters are absolutely hideous ... They're twice as big as most people need, and the vast majority of people don't need these off road vehicles at all. If you are reversing and there is a child (or more than one) directly behind, you can't see them because of the stupid size and height of the monster SUV you're driving.

Most drivers of larger vehicles (like vans and trucks and lorries) are usually skilled at driving bigger vehicles. Many people driving Chelsea tractors/SUVs have them purely as a status symbol, and are shit drivers, and putting them behind the wheel of a 3 ton beast with poor visibility, is a recipe for disaster.

I actually hate them and I really dislike most of the people that drive them ... (that I know/know of anyway..) I would quite happily sign any petition to ban them to be honest with you, purely because I loathe the bloody things and most of the people that drive them ... However your petition seems to have been taken down. Clearly someone at the petition place has a Chelsea tractor/monster truck.

How to you decide the criteria for deciding which cars require the driver to have a 'special' license?
Just another 'something must be done' moment.

What a ridiculous petition. A nonsensical, knee jerk reaction to a tragedy.

This accident was not caused by the type of car the woman was driving ffs.

This.

We don't yet know what caused this particular terrible tragedy, but it is highly unlikely to be the fault of the type of vehicle being driven.

Unfortunately we hear and read about road fatalities and serious injuries with alarming frequency, mostly involving non-SUVs.

"We’re checking this petition. 20 people have already supported this petition. No more people can sign this petition until it has been approved.
We need to check it meets the petition standards before we publish it.
Please try again in a few days."

A child in my street was killed by a speeding Clio. It wasn't the Clio to blame.

I live in an area with a lot of rural people who have SUV or 4x4 type cars, but they need to drive into town for schools and shops and whatever else. Why should they need to take extra lessons or tests because of people in towns with them who aren't great drivers? And even great drivers have things happen.

We don't know what happened yet beyond speculation. It could be anything. People have died because of all sorts of cars for all sorts of reasons. But cars haven't been banned.

If the driver of that car suffered say a heart attack or a seizure, it wouldn't have mattered what they were driving. A Vauxhall corsa would have been just as bad if there was a complete loss of control.

Lots of people drive like utter twats, especially those who can't safely drive a larger car, but policing what vehicle people are allowed to purchase isn't going to make any difference.

What a ridiculous idea.

We have an SUV - a Renault Kadjar which is no bigger than many other cars, just slightly higher. We need a car with 4x4 capability as DH often has to drive off road. However of course we also use it for ordinary stuff like going shopping. It fits into a normal parking space. It's fuel economy is around 50 mpg.

I agree that lots of people driving the huge SUVs don't need them, and they are out of place in a city environment, but you can't police what sort of cars people choose to drive.

It was initially reported in the press that the driver had a medical episode, but later she was reported to have been arrested on suspicion of death by dangerous driving. She's still in police custody, so speculation isn't advised.

This is the same argument as guns aren't the problem argument. They are part of the problem and the part we can do most about at the moment. I live a mile from Wimbledon town centre, there is no need for this kind of vehicle in this area and they are a danger, all the facts show that if you are hit by one you are more likely to die of your injuries.

It was initially reported in the press that the driver had a medical episode, but later she was reported to have been arrested on suspicion of death by dangerous driving. She's still in police custody, so speculation isn't advised.

She has been released on bail now. It's very possible this is due diligence and they're making sure she wasn't driving knowing she had a medical condition that meant she shouldn't be.

Yes exactly she may well have had a medical episode but that might still cause her to have been driving dangerously if she wasnt responsible about it.

The risk is the drivers who can't drive them properly.

That is quite literally what OP is saying - people should need an additional licence because they can't drive them safely.