Enjoyed Christmas music on the way back from the barn today. Saw 3 accidents, 2 of them fresh. All SUVs, a trend that doesn’t seem to be rare and thus begs an explanation. Do bad drivers tend to buy SUVs? They’re certainly often the most aggressive, pass-on-the-right kind of vehicles, but you’d think they wouldn’t spin off into the snow at such a high rate. I didn’t see the drivers, though…might all have been teenage boys, or the elderly (the two highest risk drivers, I’ve heard). Or is it just a consequence of more SUVs on the road when weather gets bad?
My personal feeling on the topic is that people driving SUVs tend to be overconfident. They seem to think that heavy vehicle (and possibly 4 wheel drive) makes them immune to the dangers of the road. Thus they’re less careful. They don’t seem to get that more mass means they’re going to have a harder times stopping and that a higher center of gravity tends to be problematic as well. I think they ought to have a physics of driving course for anyone who drives an SUV. :-)
So you don’t think the overconfidence is a pre-existing condition?
No, not really. If you put those people in a Geo, they drive much more carefully.