Yet another problem caused by government will soon get a “solution” – imposed by government.
What is the problem? People are running over kids they can’t see in front of their SUVs and crossovers, which ride much higher than the cars most people used to drive. This statement begs an obvious question: Why aren’t most people driving cars anymore? They used to, after all. Why don’t they anymore?
If you answered – because of government mucking with the market and car design, go to the head of the line!
There is nothing wrong with SUVs, as such. Nor with the crossovers that are designed to look like them but which are really just high-riding cars. The problem is everyone – just about – driving these things.
And why is it a problem? For the same reason it would be a problem if everyone, just about, drove any other kind of specialty vehicle whose design specifically compromises everyday functionality for the sake of a specific attribute that most of those people probably don’t need or rarely use.
A good way to understand the problem is to try to imagine if everyone – or almost everyone – were driving high-powered sports cars. Corvettes, for instance. People who did not understand the limitations and weaknesses of cars like Corvettes. Had never learned to safely drive such cars, with respect for their capabilities as well as their deficits relative to cars not designed to be very adept at high-speed, high-performance acrobatics in the hands of people who know how to perform such acts.
And who know when not to perform them.
There would probably be more wrecks – especially in winter and when the roads got wet. Cars like the Corvette are designed to be driven by people who understand and respect their deficits for the sake of their advantages in certain specific circumstances.
SUVs used to be like that – before they were called “SUVs,” a marketing acronym that came into play when SUVs were transformed from specialty vehicles (4x4s) that a relative handful of people bought because they wanted to go off-roading or needed a vehicle capable of traversing deeply rutted, unpaved and often mud-slogged roads into mass-market vehicles. The crossovers that came after emulated the looks and had the same deficits; specifically, increased ground clearance and a higher-than-car center of gravity, reduced lateral and high-speed stability – as well as larger blind spots and poorer overall visibility. These were the compromises that attended being more capable off-road, in deep snow/mud and so on, than a car.
But most people who drive SUVs and crossovers do not go off-road.
And many of them got into and get into trouble on-road. “Rolling over” became a mass phenomenon; the response was to make SUVs and crossovers more stable in the curves and at high speed – and so they are. But they are still so high off the ground that (among other things) it is often harder to see what’s in front of you when you’re behind the wheel of one.
Especially if what’s in front of you is not very high, itself – like a kid.
Enter the “frontover” – a term that sounds a lot like the backing-over of kids that led to government mandating back-up cameras and beepers in all new cars, which had become mostly SUVs and crossovers by this time. Their cabooses were so high it was harder to see what was behind them.
And now it’s the other way around, too.
The number of kids being “frontover’d” by their mom or dad’s SUVs or crossover isn’t huge in the grand scheme of things- about 526 in 2020 – but it’s enough to “call” for the usual “action.” By which is meant a new federal edict requiring another technological Band Aid to “fix” a problem the government itself created – via federal fuel efficiency requirements that had the effect of outlawing most of the cars that most people used to drive.
As mandatory MPG minimums for passenger cars went up, the size (and practicality) of cars went down. But light trucks were not – at first – required to meet the same MPG mandatory minimums as cars. They could still be bigger – and that is what most people have always wanted, then as well as now. The SUV and crossover thus became the “car” of choice for most.
But these once-upon-a-time specialty vehicles were – and are – also higher-riding than cars and harder to see out of.
Voila, the “frontover.” As well as the back-over.
Both of them are the unintended consequences of government action.
Rather than deal with the underlying problem it created, the government rushes to impose “solutions” that crutch the underlying problem, so that government can pretend it has done some good and avoid acknowledging that it is the problem.
Enter Richard Blumenthal, who has a “solution” for every problem created by government. He is demanding that the same federal regulatory apparat that made SUVs and crossovers the “cars” of choice for more than two-thirds of “car” drivers issue a new federal edict requiring all new SUVs and crossovers be fitted with “preventive technology” – which likely means more cameras to see what the driver can’t and more interventions to “assist” people who probably ought not to be driving high-riding SUVs and crossovers for the same reason most people probably ought not to be piloting airplanes.
There’d be fewer “frontovers” (and back-overs, too) if most people were still driving cars they could see out of. That would take repealing CAFE – the acronym for the federal regs that impose mandatory MPG minimums – and undoing the market distortions they’ve caused over the past 50 years.
It’d be a start, at any rate. But nothing will ever be truly fixed until a way can be found to fix the government that broke it.
. . .
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” … until a way can be found to fix the government …
Some things are worth fixing. Others? “Throw it in the woods.”
Catherine O’Leary was milking her cow in Chicago, the cow kicked over a lantern, Chicago burned. No stopping burning buildings constructed of framed lumber, up in smoke… just like that. You have to blame the Irish, perfect scapegoat. Your fault, too.
You build back better right away. Gotta do something.
Lahaina in Hawaii burns to the ground, you have to build back better.
If only Warshington, DC would burn to the ground, build back better would be a blessing in disguise. The ghouls in Warshington have no problem burning everywhere else to the ground, not a problem. A little of their own medicine can be the cure, the dirty dogs that they are. A new ‘frontover’ is what really should take place.
Fire and brimstone for those guys too.
One can pray.
Americans owe it to the US gov to burn the US gov to the ground so it can be built back better. It’s time, the phoenix will rise from the ashes, something new and different, can’t complain. It’ll be epic climate change, just what the dotgov asked for, so there.
Let’s hope to God change happens sooner than later, it will be a sight not soon to be forgotten.
And welcomed!
Please, Lord, hear our prayer.
I’m a 66 year old female. I drive a 2021 white 4×4 Tundra, purchased partly after reading Eric’s review. I have no business having this truck at all. Will probably never use the 4×4, but I love my truck—and she loves me, lol. Plus, I do like sitting up higher and also as I have mentioned here before, I know how cool I am driving it and so am doing a public service for people when I drive. I also like being delusional, in a sane way.
I do have to be very careful pulling in and backing up—of course I don’t want to hit a child–but even worse, I don’t want to scratch/hurt my truck. Seriously, I do make it a point to look all around the truck before moving. I did have the opportunity Sunday after church to plow through the crowd in the parking lot. Since, it was immediately after church I decided to be nice and not do that.
Weren’t vehicles in the past pretty big too? Model T’s and A’s? Then in the 30’s and 40’s, cars and trucks with the big rounded fronts and backs. You could see out of the vehicle better but those were still some big vehicles. In the 60’s and 70’s, cars and trucks were lower to the ground with plenty of viewing space. I remember as a kid, when anyone got in their vehicle and started the engine, everyone backed up out of the way. Something in our primitive, primeval mind told us that we would be squashed flat like a bug if we didn’t move out of the way.
Yes, some vehicles are way too big (except mine–it is, but I do like it) and people don’t pay attention. I don’t think we need any more cameras added though.
These are the people/parents that want a new regulation because of their own stupidity/accidental loss. They want everyone else to pay too. They’ve lost a child to drugs, drunk driving, playground accident, drowning. Their child never gets a trophy, not fair, everyone gets a trophy now.
One more thing, then will be quite. Back three or four years ago had a midget girl (okay, little person), in the school system. Had been there from kindergarten to 12th. In high school, she was on the track team! The track team! At the time I was still getting the newspaper. Oh my goodness, that girl had her picture in the sports section every chance they got to put it in. The big thing is, her mother was a teacher at the school—-and that my friends is how you make the track team when you are only knee high —to everyone—when your mother is a teacher at the school. And—that is why we will have cameras all over vehicles in the future, like they do on TV so they can get all the angels.
Everybody ain’t gonna make the team, I don’t care how much you regulate and mandate something, how much DEI you do.
The only free thing a person should get from the government is a mirror—if they don’t have one—make it full length. Make the person sit in the room, look in the mirror and say ‘really’, make them look at the backside too. Just look in the mirror. No, you are not going to make the team. No, you are not pretty/handsome/smart. You are just a regular everyday person, nothing special and that is fine. Have talked long enough and gotten off track, sorry.
Bast damn post of the day!
You didn’t talk too long but not long enough!
Agree, with krusty, Elaine. Excellent post and funny as hell. 🙂
Liked most of your post, however the bit about track is just plain wrong. I am a high school track coach. There are no cuts in track. I need a 100 kids just to fill out all of the events 3 deep. I have had autistic kids, one blind pole vaulter, several very slow/poor runners/throwers without an ounce of ability. I see no problem with a midget on the track team. Your complaint about pictures. I say so what, we used pictures of our blind vaulter. He was actually pretty good cleared 11 feet. Maybe your midget was pretty good as well. In track it is about turnover and endurance. I’ll see your 66 and raise three.
Well Ugg, I definitely didn’t mean it to sound mean and that’s okay to let anyone on the track team that wants to participate. The thing is, people are different and that is fine, that’s how God made us. Everyone cannot do everything that they want to do. Their IQ and/or physical ability is going to stop them, no matter how much they may want to do something. But, there are plenty of other things they can do. I’m sorry, I just don’t think of short people and track. Nowadays though that is not allowed. Everyone is equal and the same. No we are not.
The other part of the story was the fact that her mother was a teacher at the high school. That is part of the reason she was made over so much. If it had been Joe Blow from Ball Play (that is a community down the road from me), then he probably would’ve been ignored. This is a small community and overall I like it very much, but small towns like mine do tend to do that sort of thing. And, they practically worship the teachers around here too—that’s probably why it gets under my craw.
Elaine, I understand your position. It is unfair if the person you mentioned had an unfair advantage. But you spoke from an assumption, ie unfair advantage. Is your assumption true? I don’t know. Maybe yes, maybe no. But does it really matter. Looks like sour grapes to me. I am also in a small community. The teachers are certainly not worshiped. You are new poster on this site are you not?
Hey Ugg, not a new poster and not sour grapes. Been coming here a long time, when Eric was reviewing tricycles and Big Wheels.
Ugg—I guess you are a teacher also? Apologies for saying bad things about teachers. I have a lot of friends, retired teachers. Love them, but—–why, why are teachers more special than the rest of us? They aren’t. Just like Eric has talked in the past about how everyone worships the police, or first responders, nurses, the military. All those people are called heroes because of their job or they have to work on holidays. They aren’t heroes, they aren’t special. They knew what they were signing up for. I’m a retired RN. I knew what I was getting into, weekends, holidays, poop, long days, enjoyment from seeing a person get better. Didn’t expect any special notice from anyone. Now, you even hear people talking about Black Friday and the poor clerks having to work the day after Thanksgiving? What is that? Of course they have to work the day after and if the store opens earlier, tough. Like Eric says, boo hoo, think he adds another word. People need to grow up, grow a pair and grow a backbone. Getting older and grouchier and thoroughly enjoying it, lol.
Personally I enjoyed working nights and weekends. No one around to bother you. No one around to touch things that shouldn’t be touched.
Downside of overnight work is that sometimes I was on call too, so the phone had to stay on all day. “Oh did you work last night? I’m sorry I’ll call Bob…” “Well, I’m awake now what’s wrong?”
Not a teacher. I am actually a lawyer. I coach cross country and track at the high school level as I enjoy it and love the sport. I agree that the hero worship of people that are just doing their jobs is moronic. I missed Vietnam by a year (Draft). The hero worship of all the gov employees is satanic. I only questioned your assumption that a track athlete had to “make” the team “no cuts” I need bodies to fill slots, and you know some of those kids do real well because they were able to be part of a team. One of my autistic kids competed collegiality.
Hey Ugg—I’m like an old dog with a bone, can’t let it go. So, you are coaching out of the goodness of your heart? I admire that and I do understand that the competition is good for those kids esteem. And, even if you were a teacher and coaching on the side, that would be great also. Believe me, I have respect for people with disabilities, blind people, little people, autistic. They have a rough road in life. I have a lot of respect for them and treat them like I treat everyone else. I’m mean to them, lol. Just treat them like normal. I’m really not sour grapes, but they literally act like teachers hung the moon around here. They had all the teachers ans support staff come on the ‘stage’ at church Sunday—eyes rolling. One girl I didn’t think was a teacher went up. Turns out she is a ‘middle school volleyball coach’. Doesn’t have her teaching degree, just volleyball. How much time is that going to take her for the school year? Maybe there is my sour grapes. Why should taxpayer money be used for a paid position for a middle school volleyball coach? Used to teachers did any coaching on the side. Mentioning Eric again—why should he have to pay school taxes since he has never had any children in school? I completely agree. My kids are not in school any longer, why should I have to continue paying school taxes? And what kind of job gives a person ‘tenure’ after three years and they can’t be fired? Maybe you’re correct, maybe I can make wine out of those grapes?
Oh yeah, my late husband and brother (still alive), used to laugh at the government workers and how they complained about everything—how hard they had it. They would moan and groan and all they worried about was retirement. Mike, (husband) ME, and my brother (EE) had worked at the steel plant and paper mill. They knew about hard work –what’s it called downtime (turn?) for maintenance, all nighters, all weekenders, getting filthy dirty, no sleep, always on call, getting gassed at work, unable to do something to speed things up because they were salary and not union. Get in trouble for fixing something if you weren’t union, neither one a union fan. Later Mike ended up with SAIC in Anniston helping to destroy the chemicals. He was their Treaty Compliance Officer. Then he got Jeff on. So, they were finally being paid for their brains and not their backs. Hearing the government workers complain rubbed them the wrong way. They had worked in private industry and knew what work was. Then after they finished, Mike ended up in Richmond, Kentucky at the Bluegrass Army depot starting from the ground up on a facility to destroy the chemicals there. By then SAIC had split off and part had become Leidos and he was with them. When he first went to Annsiton, they asked him if he was scared about working around the chemicals. He laughed and told them he had been around more dangerous chemicals at the steel plant, lol. That’s only the tip of the iceberg of my ‘story’. Good guy, born with grease under his fingernails.
I promise, will try to stay off of here, at least until tomorrow.
Elaine I read your last post and it is really more than I need to know. I am just a track coach. I work with the kids I have. Goal to be better. Improvement is the marker. As long as the effort and work is there I am happy. I have had several state champions, one of them paced my autistic athlete to a pr after he won the race.
PS. We sent all our children to Catholic schools K-12. We paid. Got nothing for my school taxes which is a bunch. It should be tanstafl.
Our fire department’s tanker has this system- it’s a military surplus 6WD Freightliner which sits 6 feet in the air. Which does kind of make the point- this proximity warning probably saved a lot of (18 yr old) kid’s lives on this very useful but very poor visibility vehicle. I would never likely be needed on a Buick Sportwagon or a Vista Cruiser.
A train crew has an engineer to drive the train, two brakemen, two switchmen, a conductor.
The engineer does not decide when the train is going to go, the conductor gives the go ahead, the time to start moving. They have to pay attention, it’s part of the job. Has to be an ‘all clear’ before the train can move, conductor’s job. 25 sacks of mail have to get there somehow.
One driver on a train engine is a hopeless cause, you need the rest of the crew to move a hundred cars of barley to the Rahr malting plant in Minnesota. Texas has the Rahr Brewing Company in Fort Worth.
You have to wonder how Texas became so populated. Was it Gulf Oil? Texaco? Murex Petroleum? Was it Sun Oil? Maybe Humble Oil?
You can drive a car or a truck all by yourself. All kinds of vehicles from all directions are prone to have situations that cause unavoidable accidents. Pay attention, no other choice. It is a worthy cause, driver’s have a job to do, even if it is straightening the curves and flattening the hills.
Do it for the children.
When you are driving and you see pedestrians or bicyclers in your path, you can score using a point system how much each one is worth before you hit them. If the score is too low, they will be fortunate to make it further on down the road. It’s an old game that is played all of the time. You don’t hit anybody, but some folks are worth a hundred points or more, so there is always temptation.
You get plenty of exercise picking cucumbers and cabbage. Then it’s beer time.
Visibility sucks in most modern sedans as well. The belt lines are getting higher, the rear windows getting smaller, the trunks are getting taller. It’s not as bad as these giant pickups, whose hoods stand even with my shoulders, but still pretty bad.
I’ve driven various cars from every decade since the 1970’s. Until the mid 2000’s, visibility was generally pretty good, but something happened to designs as we approached 2010.
Exactly. I’m glad I’m not the only one who has picked up on this. In addition, it is being reflected in increasing accident rates on US roads, especially for pedestrians. The higher beltline designs started entering the vehicle mix in 2007. Automakers had until 2011 to fully comply with the new standards. Vehicles with the new designs became a significant part of the vehicle mix by 2012 or so. The US was still under the slow walk recovery from the 2008 financal “crisis.” of the time, so the accident and fatality numbers did not start rising significantly until after 2013.
So, between 2000 and 2009, the average number of pedestrian fatalities was 4600 per year. From 2010-2021, the average number was 5600 annually. The second number actually understates what has happened as the numbers were closer to 6500 in 2019, the year before the Covid period. (2020-2021)
The new designs are simply put, dangerous. Car manufacturers are building and marketing a defective product “forced” on them by the long arm of the NHTSA and all the other agencies that pretend to know how to build vehicles.
It is not only pedestrian fatals that are affected by low visibility designs, it is everywhere. If you can’t see, you can’t see. The uptick began in 2014 as the economy finally emerged from the 2008-2012 recession. The increasing trend has not stopped, except for a brief respite in 2017-19 (ironically, during the Trump years).
I drive a 2012 Acura TL, which meets the current FMVSS in effect. I have had at least 5 close calls since buying the car in mid 2022 where someone appeared out of nowhere even after I consulted all of my mirrors. My anecdotal experience tells me that modern designs are dangerous. And I believe that we have a defective design. Where the fuck is Mr. Nader
Where the f@$k is Mr. Nader? Apparently he is still on this plane wasting perfectly good oxygen at age 89. Slow roasting in Hell shortly if there is any justice.
Beware of pedestrians at night who wear dark clothes and cross in the middle of the street who do not look both ways. Maybe this is more of a practice by non-drivers, and non-drivers are increasingly represented.
i luv it! you are taking the pro-kid crushing position!! totally on board with it! too many degenerate spawn of tax-loving shit heads out there already let Darwinic forces correct the problem!! they aughta mount mcdonald happy meal toys to the front and rear bumpers to help with the situation…now do crosswalks another chance to decrease the surplus population of disgusting rugrats that grow up to suck mommy state tit!
One of the most puzzling questions about auto sales i have had unanswered for over a decade is why so many people buy or lease SUVs rather than cars. I could understand getting a minivan if there were lots of kids, or a need to haul more gear than usual, like the old station wagons.
This is especially true for single women who have no logical reason to prefer an SUV over a car. One of the most puzzling sights here in the Detroit suburbs is a single woman driving an enormous, perfectly cleaned and waxed, black extended Cadillac Escalade called the Escalade ESV.
I guess the implied message is “I’m rich and I have a huge garage big enough to hold this huge vehicle”?
Two days ago on a major surface road, we were stopped at a red light in our Camry observing that eight of the ten vehicles near us were all SUVs. And all ten vehicles were white, black or silver. Not one red vehicle, or anything else other than white, black and silver. Our current Camry is white, and our prior Camry was black, so I guess we’re in the dull crowd too.
Yesterday the wife spotted what I think was a recent model Corvette at 8am, got all excited, and said: “What was that?” She wanted to chase the “supercar” and find out. I said: “It’s just a Corvette”, as a guess, and we went to the supermarket as planned.
The typical car these days, especially SUVs, is boring to look at, and many look the same. You can’t even recognize the electric Mustang as a Mustang. I saw at least three eMustangs on the road before realizing they were “Ford Mustangs”.
Hi Richard,
All I buy is SUVs. Why? I sit higher which allows me better visibility. I also like the space and everything being under one roof (vs that of a truck with a bed). I can toss multiple kids, dogs, and groceries in one spot. I like pick up trucks, but I find the SUV handles better, especially for longer trips. I drive between 17K-22K miles a year. I want comfort.
My husband, on the other hand, is a fan of manual sports cars. They sit low to the ground. I am not a fan. They are beautiful, they are fast, but when I can’t see over the hill to make a left turn or one deer decides to cross the road at an inopportune time then my kids become orphans. My children are learning to drive. They have old pick up trucks and SUVs to choose from. They are still inexperienced and as a mom I want them in the most reliable, steel surrounded bubble I can put them in. Am I a worrywart? Absolutely. But, that isn’t going to change. If I have a choice to put my family in the securest most dependable automobile I can I will do that.
“as a mom I want them (my kids) in the most reliable, steel surrounded (SUV) bubble I can put them in.”
“My husband, on the other hand, is a fan of manual sports cars. They sit low to the ground. I am not a fan.”
Implied messages
(1) Protect the kids
(2) The husband is expendable
ha ha
Hi Richard,
“The husband is expendable”
No he isn’t, but he is a grown man and can make his own decisions. He likes what he likes. 🙂 The kids I am allowed to have some say over…at least until they leave home.
buy heavily on life ins. for hubby;;; plow with liquor+++empty brake fluid reservour…collect fat payday….give me a call!! j/k !_!_!_
*unless you are really sick of the guy
Hi joker,
Actually, I love the guy. I just don’t love his choice of cars. 🙂
A good SUV would be a M12A Abrams. Plenty of steel and if someone pisses them off,,, well,,, it’s 120mm main gun will put smiles on their faces. Can’t get safer than that!
Hi ken,
What is the MPH on that tank? It doesn’t look street legal. 😉 I was thinking more along the lines of a International XT, Trekol, or a Knight XV.
Gets about 45 mph I think. Gets 0.6 mpg (and they complain our cars and trucks are gas guzzlers). Eric would love the 1500 horsepower.
Add on turn signals and brake lights and you’d be good to go. Won’t pass a CO2 test but who’s gonna stop you!
The Movie ‘Tank’ with James Garner is fun to watch….
You can buy a running Soviet (or Polish or Czech) built T34/85 tank for about $125,000. Not including shipping.
A Stacey Abrams weighs even more. She was driving but got lost in the Atlanta area and so she asked a gas station attendant, “how do I get to the 400?” He said, “Diet and exercise.”
Preach it!
Only thing I’d add is ideally the kids should learn on a manual. Keeps ’em more engaged with what’s going on, and makes it much more difficult to drive around with a sail fawn in hand. My daughter still thinks it’s so much fun she often forgets her phone at home.
I’m the one driving the 250 and 350 4xs. My wife is addicted to her sports cars.
“as a mom I want them (my kids) in the most reliable, steel surrounded (SUV) bubble I can put them in.”
Had a friend with the same notion. I asked her, “what about the people they hit?” Stunned to silence. After all they are inexperienced drivers.
Hi John,
I know this sounds cruel, but I have a responsibility to protect my children. Other parents have a responsibility to protect theirs. There is always risk. We have all seen bad drivers at every age. The only thing my husband and I can do is to try to teach them to drive defensively and to pay attention to their surroundings. We don’t allow cell phones while driving, seat belts are to be buckled, etc.
There are teenagers driving every day all around this country. I have a personal obligation to drive to the best of my ability and to avoid crashes and collusions no matter how old the driver is. If I see someone driving recklessly, I get out of their way.
This about says it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diJLWo6CKY0
I have to laugh at the macho pendejos with their lifted 4WDs that never go off the pavement. Not a speck of dust, nary a scratch in the highly polished paint job. Road grader tires, 4-6 shock absorbers per wheel. Top of the bed sides @ 5′ off the pavement. Short bed, dual cab. Diesel power, of course. Maybe even some vertical exhaust pipes behind the cab.
Posermobiles.
If it’s a red one, it may well belong to a “firefighter” with plenty of money to spend in his copious free time when he is not sleeping at the fire station and getting paid for it. Excuse me, “protecting us.”
Hi Adi,
You, Californians don’t know how to have a good time. 😉 These trucks are the preferred county vehicle where I live. Unless, a step ladder is needed it isn’t high enough. Running boards? Pfft. Of course, they have a vertical exhaust. How is one to hear you coming from a mile away? When one spends $10k on new shocks, struts, controls arm plus new tires there is no need to get it dirty. Of course, during the Blizzard of ’96 only a few of us made it out without getting stuck. 🙂
Hey, RG,
Don’t forget the wheel well lights. 🙂
Blue, of course.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4Ry_-NIx9w
The boomer and x generations watched movies like Star Trek,,, Star Wars etc which enhanced their vision and hope for humans. Today the generations go for infantile Barbie movie where the big strong woman steps on today’s girly men like cockroaches feminists think they are.
mmmmm this was supposed to be a reply…….
‘There’d be fewer “frontovers” if most people were still driving cars they could see out of.’ — eric
And pickups, par excellence.
Rode in a friend’s gigantic Chevy Silverado yesterday, on a sketchy forest road with rock outcroppings punching through the surface.
It’s impossible to see the road over the tall hood, closer than about 30 feet ahead. He complained about having to ‘pick your line’ through obstacles, long before reaching them.
Or else stop the truck, make the vertiginous climb down to ground level, and hike out take a look.
A supreme irony of this burly, large-tired pickup is that its stiff suspension makes it skitter and jounce on washboard gravel. My vintage compact SUV easily outperformed it in ride and suspension travel on the same road.
If kids can touch the suspension, it’s not a gigantic pickup. Gigantic pickups aren’t much of a threat to them unless they are right in front of the wheels.
The SOLE cause of frontovers and backovers are inattentive drivers. The manufacturers of these “safety” devices see this as an opportunity to rent seek (mandating a new safety device) and so they lobby congress and hire PR firms to make it sound like these inherently unsafe vehicles are a plague on society and something must be done. Wash, rinse and repeat.
Here’s the answer: Don’t drive the car in a particular direction unless you are absolutely sure there is not a person in the way. PROBLEM SOLVED. Of course there’s just no grift opportunity with this solution.
Are you advocating personal responsibility? Can’t have that in 2023 Amerika. Need an app and/or a law instead.
Not necessarily. Car design has a lot to do with the likelihood of an accident. When the government mandates a defective design and manufactures willingly comply in the most supplicant manner possible, we have a problem. I prefer to go back to no safety standards at all. In light of increasing fatality numbers today, I believe that we could do just as well as the government has done int he last 60 years.
It should be our decision.
Safety features breed complacency.
Imagine that. Government having to “fix” a problem it created with another costly solution. My hope is after the collapse, the federal government will go back to where it needs to be: National defense, coinage and the mail. Everything else is left to the states.
I’m afraid you are going to be disappointed. The founders went to great lengths to prevent that when they shit canned the Articles. Secondly Governments never downsize. They either grow or die. Dying would be a great thing. Most everyone on this site maintains self responsibility is a must! No government would guarantee that. We have already seen limited government does not work.
And a question, What makes you think the States would be any less tyrannical than the Feds?
Well, for one thing, 50 well armed and determined men could overthrow most State governments.
Hi ken: I don’t think the Articles were in fact shit canned. The Constitution certainly does not repeal them. This is what the Articles themselves say:
“[A]nd to authorize us to ratify the said articles of confederation and perpetual union, Know Ye, that we, the undersigned delegates, by virtue of the power and authority to us given for that purpose, do, by these presents, in the name and in behalf of our respective constituents, fully and entirely ratify and confirm each and every of the said articles of confederation and perpetual union, and all and singular the matters and things therein contained. . .And that the articles thereof shall be inviolably observed by the states we respectively represent, and that the union shall be perpetual.”
Sort of. Perpetual in this case doesn’t mean forever. It means until the parties choose to end the association. Which they implicitly did by sending out the usurpers to Philadelphia (some delegates remembered they weren’t authorized to shitcan the Articles and left in protest) and accepting the product, and explicitly by shutting down their Congress when the Constitution was ratified.
Last I checked, perpetual means forever.
This is not good, what if you need to run someone over? Like they have a gun and are trying to carjack or rob you? Or even to escape running over a bush or sign.
Richard Blumenthal is a war hero and a Saint. If he calls us to war, we go, without question. If we need cameras on our vehicles, we pay for them…gladly.
Richard Blumenthal, willing to sacrifice Gentile boys to save His country…
ISRAEL
Onward, Christian soldiers.
A certain large cable company requires technicians to place a cone in front or behind their parked vehicles. This isn’t to prevent someone else hitting the vehicle, it’s to insure the tech has looked at the vehicle prior to pulling or backing out. Performing the “circle of safety” ritural is mandatory for anyone driving a company truck. This despite there never being a documented case of someone hitting anyone when backing out. Because if it had actually happened we’d never hear the end of it from the safety department. About the only thing that happens is someone forgets to put away the cable spool or leaves tools on the bumper, or just drives off leaving something behind.
But why do kids play in the driveway when there are cars parked in it anyway? Sure, we’d play pickup basketball or stickball when the cars weren’t there, but if the car was there we did something else, usually in the back yard or a friend’s house. In fact the few times we did try to play around cars the first bad pass that bounced into the car would be the end of that, usually with a discussion about how dad’s gonna kill one of us (probably not by driving over them, but we could imagine a Snidely Whiplash scenario being the punishment).
Before you say “kids are different now,” no, they aren’t. Who wants to do anything around parked cars? There’s no room to play, and the real danger of breaking something. The only real difference now is that there’s no room anywhere for “unstructured” play, but that’s not going to be fixed with a stone chiped, insect-coated camera on the grill.
My job also required a 360 walk around the truck, never saw any humans but occasionally saved me from leaving equipment behind. Did lose a pair or two of wheel chocks if I happened to be parked facing up a hill. 😆
Mine too, Mike. We called it a circle check. Back in the old days, if the union was getting restless, managers would go out to your jobsite and hide, then write you up if you got back in the truck without doing the circle check. It was also policy that you had to back into parking spots, better visibility than backing out. You’d also get written up for pulling in nose first. I worked for an outfit that rhymes with horizon, but I started when it was ma bell.
We had thee options, in order:
Pull in, pull out
back in, pull out
pull in back out*
*You’d better have a very good explanation as to why the last choice was used.
I have completely taken those rules to life, including parking far away from other vehicles in order to follow the rules. But there’s a pretty big difference between trying to back out a long bucket truck with a back porch, no rearview mirrors, 5 foot tall storage bins and my dumpy little Cherokee.
Same with us Floriduh, I worked for the electric utility here and if you happened to piss off the bosses a stupidvisor would show up for a spot saaaaaaafety check on your job site and always manage to find something to chastise you for. When I started there they were named after Tommy Edison, not sure what they’re named now after deregulation and a couple mergers.
Doesn’t everyone do a walkaround? At least enough to assure there are no strange puddles or low tires?
I taught my kids to back into parking spots so even if they forget, they had eyes on walking to the vehicle.
I don’t know about a walkaround but I’ve heard a reacharound is a polite thing to do.
Isn’t Richard Blumenthal the same Senator who, along with Lindsey Graham, is calling for WAR against Russia? Given that untold thousands of Ukrainians died already in this senseless proxy war of the West against Russia, will Blumenthal also call for a “limited draft” of Americans like one editorial in the Miltary Times is calling for?
And if I’m not mistaken, Blumenthal also lied about serving in Vietnam. Of course when he got caught, it wasn’t a lie, perhaps he just “misspoke”. Neither he nor Graham had the balls to go fight, but they can’t wait to send our kids and grandkids to die for something that’s none of our business in the first place. It’s just astonishing that people keep re-electing these scumbags.
Hi Floriduh,
The people who keep electing these scumbags are scumbags. That is the problem.
Ding!
Connecticut, nuff said. Not just scumbags, uber-wealthy leftist puke elitist scumbags. Best thing CT has going for it is that at least it’s not NY.
Marketing hype. I was taught that seniority is very important in Congress. Because that’s how your representative gets on the all the best committees.
Note that the history/civics teacher who told that was president of the NEA local. In a town that was dominated by Democrats and union thugs (but I repeat myself), and kept Jack Murtha in office for 36 years.
And of course before Murtha was cold all the essential military research projects he brought to town were suddenly cancelled. “Proof” that seniority is important…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Murtha
I can’t think of any war we “should have” been in or should be in. Maybe the revolutionary. Before I am taken wrong again,,, I was in RVN. At that point in my life I was completely brainwashed. I volunteered, that is I enlisted. Watching people die changes your perspective. Coming ‘home’ having eggs and paint thrown on you, refused work has an impact on your view as well.
@ floriduh
I’m not so sure they are being re-elected. It’s easy for the machines to throw an election. And they’ll make it look close too. New era in ‘demon-cracy.
We call them CHICKENHAWKS.
John B,
Richard Blumenthal is a war hero and a Saint. If he calls us to war, we go, without question. If we need cameras on our vehicles, we pay for them…gladly.
Hans,
Calling Richard Blumenthal a war hero is akin to calling Tony Fauci a pandemic hero and Saint. Oh wait, there were actually people who thought of Fauci as that, and had the attitude people should wear however many face diapers and take however many COVID jabs he called for without question.
On behalf of every common sense, freedom-loving, car-loving citizen of Connecticut, I would like to apologize to the rest of America (and the world) for the senior Senator Richard “Dickhead” Blumenthal. For some reason, every six years, the wackos in this state get together and overwhelmingly vote in leftist Democrats for U.S. Senate. It’s uncanny. And DICK Blumenthal is one of the worst ever. This piece-of-shit of a man has NEVER met a TV camera he didn’t like. And there has never been a leftist cause that this lawyer scum won’t involve himself in some way. The man is pure evil. And I won’t even comment on the lies about Vietnam or, worse, denying he attended a fundraiser the CT Communist Party. He can’t “assume room temperature” fast enough.
I will leave you with this:
A few years ago Dickhead was setting up some Q&A session at a local library or something where a friend of mine was working. Now my friend is a super-strong conservative and a super big 2nd Amendment and gun rights activist, both things that Blumey HATES. As people were getting the cameras in place (surprise, surprise), someone asked if anyone had any questions for the Senator. My friend saw opportunity and piped up:
FRIEND: “Uh yes, Senator…I just wanted to ask you… how the operation went?”
(A Very Confused Looking) BLUMENTHAL: “The operation?”
FRIEND: “Yes, your operation.”
BLUMENTHAL: “What operation?”
(he’s completely baffled at this point)
FRIEND: “Yes, the one where they removed your conscience!”
He told me the look on Blumenthal’s face was priceless! 😂
Great story, Plymouthbill.
Thanks for sharing.
…I guess, some people are at least trying.
People must be in a hurry, John. My ’22 Camry has a “warning” when I turn off the vehicle, reminding me to “check the back seat”. Apparently, parents have left their kids behind in the back seat, and enough times that another saaaafety measure had to be implemented. Of all the stupid things. Given enough rope, TPTB will deem we are too stupid to drive, and decide to eliminate not only the ICE vehicles, but even the EV’s, too, that I make no bones about not liking.
There are numerous people to stupid to drive already driving, I witness them every fucking day
Imagine the grief running over your kid would cause. Although I guess for some of these accidental parents it might be no problem. Of course, any solution designed for those who need GovCo to hold their hand in the first place will be a fail. It’ll lead to new and unintended consequences, ultimately resulting in foot powered Flinstone type vehicles. Half the population would probably embrace such a solution once some vapid whores and whoremongers on TeeVee were shown ‘diving’ one.
If they want to solve this ‘problem’ affecting a fraction of a fraction of a fraction, there is an easy fix. Bring back mandatory Drivers ED for new drivers. When I had my CDL the first thing you would do as part of your pre trip inspection, is walk around the vehicle, visually insuring nothing out of place. That one step alone would completely eliminate this ‘Problem.’ Whats the 1st thing you do before starting your vehicle? If they fail to answer that question on the test, no license,
Why is my child’s safey a federal concern? Aside from protection from foreign invaders, I don’t see how anything the federal government does will really protect my child in any sense, either at the macro or micro scale. These self-apointed heroes are just pandering to the voters with the most empathy and out of control imaginations. “If it only saves one child!” or “If it were your child!” they cry. Well, it wouldn’t be my child because I’d teach the li’l tyke to not play around cars as soon as the rugrat was old enough to play unattended. And what age would that be? When the crumb cruncher could comprehend enough physics to know that steel beats skin and bone 100% of the time.
Since the US military hasn’t protected Americans* since January 8, 1815, protection from foreign invaders can be ruled out. Not to mentions the illegals they let pour in.
* If you are a MIC fat cat, you aren’t an American. The military protecting your profits doesn’t count.
No, the military’s done a fine job of protecting us from people who the politicians, diplomats and spies have nettled enough to get them to stike out with violence.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_Economic_Hit_Man
Exactly. I am not my brothers keeper or his children’s keeper. I taught mine to stay the f*@& outa the road, and not play around cars. The bus stop kids in the city are the worst these days. They meander into the road and shot eye darts at you for inching forward.
Recently in California I saw a segment on the local news. A bunch of people crying about their dead loved one that got froggered crossing a busy street in LA.
The road looked to be 3 lanes on each side, about 45-50mph speed limit. The dead person wasn’t using the crosswalk. They had video of the car as it hit the person and drove away. The person wasn’t even attempting to step lively across the road. Just walking like a gangsta holding its pants up.
What incensed the family and friends most was this wasn’t the first person to be killed trying to cross this section of road.The solution they were agitating for, traffic cameras to give out speeding tickets. No mention of tickets for J walking.
I’m sure that, just like airbags, eventually lane assist, collision avoidance, automatic braking and adaptive cruise will all be mandatory. And as discussed in the Titan column the other day, the manufacturers will go along, cuz, hey, that’s another 3 of 4 grand they can add to every vehicle.
The sensors for the saaaafety “features” have valid Patents, especially the optical-based systems, which result in royalty checks mailed to PO Boxes in Los Gatos and Los Altos zip codes.
The Patents covering the backup cameras expired years ago.
I suspect most such incidents, as few as there are, are caused by drivers being in too much of a hurry, pulling out of their driveway like they’re in a rally race, because they are running late. The kid doesn’t have time to get out of the way. Adding a camera won’t help, because they’re in too big a hurry to look at the screen. They also don’t have time to look around the vehicle before they get in it. A habit I developed driving on construction sites.
JK,
Exactly! You have to look around & have 360′ of situational awareness. My dad taught me this when we were still farming. I still do it when driving a car or a lawnmower.
Maybe they should teach their brat not to get too close to the car when someone is getting ready to pull away. Other than that, yes, the car designs are causing all of this. It’s not just that people are driving SUV’s. Modern safety standards are making cars of all sizes and types more difficult to see around and maneuver in regular traffic.