Here’s more evidence that SUVs are more dangerous than we realized:
A tractor-trailer carrying new Mercury Mariners struck an overpass on the Atlantic City Expressway yesterday morning in Camden County, totaling two of the SUVs and damaging two more, police said.
No injuries were reported.
Eastbound lanes of the highway in Winslow Township were closed for about an hour after the 8 a.m. accident as the SUVs were towed away and engineers inspected the overpass.
Traffic backed up 41/2 miles to Route 42, said Sgt. Stephen Jones, a state police spokesman.
The rig, driven by Frank C. Cinicola Jr., 63, was taking a full load of Mariners to dealers at the Shore, Jones said. The highest SUV struck the overpass at milepost 38.4, flipped off the carrier, and crashed onto the road, Jones said.
A second Mariner was knocked off and dragged several dozen yards before the truck could pull over, Jones said.
Trooper Sean McKinney, who investigated, described one of the SUVs as being “completely obliterated,” Jones said.
Other than a few chips in the concrete, damage to the overpass was minimal, Jones said.
Clearly, this means that SUVs are so dangerous that they can kill people without even having to be started! Had that tractor trailer rig been loaded with normal cars, there would have been plenty of clearance, and the blasted thing wouldn’t have hit the overpass!
Vehicles which kill without having to be started remind me of an episode in my life when I was involved in mass shipping of medicinal supplements to people with AIDS. While one question was whether the supplements were effective as treatment, the other was whether they might be harmful, and if so, at what dose. The stuff came in heavy boxes, and they had to be carried up several flights of stairs. After careful calculation, the fatal dosage was determined.
Two boxes at three stories.
There was also my Volkswagen Rabbit diesel — the slowest car I ever had.
Almost. No. Power. Or. Acceleration. What. So. Ever.
Wouldn’t you think of such a car as being seemingly harmless to other drivers or pedestrians? Wrong! I am here to tell you that it was capable of developing very, very fast speeds. This occurred routinely whenever the car was going downhill!
Couldn’t blogs be fatal too? I think they could — especially if they were used in a drive-by blogging!
How much more senseless destruction and loss of human life will it take?
Comments
3 responses to “Unsafe at any speed!”
YES! The Rabbit Diesel was slow. In Colorado we had to have it “tuned” to cut emissions, which made it slower – and very very dangerous to drive on the highway. However the 50mpg was great.
YES! The Rabbit Diesel was slow. In Colorado we had to have it “tuned” to cut emissions, which made it slower – and very very dangerous to drive on the highway. However the 50mpg was great.
I loved my Rabbit even if it was slow (I didn’t dare turn on the AC even in Las Vegas in the summer, but having a 20 gallon fuel tank meant almost 1000 miles between fill ups. I was crawling out of the Vegas valley one evening and was passed by a Winnebago. The shame! But it lasted to almost 340,000 miles for which my thin wallet was greatful. It finally cratered in I-95 one hot summer morning. It was a sad day. I still drive a diesel although it now takes the guise of a pick-up truck.
Thanks for the memory, Eric.