I feel the same against sluggish drivers or hessitant:
But the point isn't about sluggish drivers. It's about the amount of damage heavier vehicle can do in a crash. The point regarding selfishness comes from only thinking "I'll be alright in a crash". Not thinking of other vulnerable road users.
I never ever mentioned holding people up........
Yes I did read. But I never compared old cars against new SUV's. You've made the connection which led to your long winded posts. I'm only pointing out counter points to your claims (crumple zone, SUV meeting a standard)
Neither can a driver react to that, so your entire example is not really supporting your opening point.
Yes a heavier object will sustain more damage than a lighter object travelling at the same speed. But in terms of cars, if both an old light car and a modern heavier car brake from the same point and same speed, the modern car will stop much quicker, due to its superior brakes, tyres and suspension. If the lighter old vehicle was travelling at 60mph and braked heavily but still hit an obstruction at 30mph, the heavier modern car would do less damage, not just because it would be travelling slower but it's construction is more likely to absorb the energy better and reduce the damage on the obstruction..
You were the one who tried to say SUV's were dangerous. All I did was prove that a typical SUV scores only 8% lower than a modern car, but scores 20% better than a 23 year old car. That 23 year old car still has much better crash protection for pedestrians etc., than a 53 year old car.
My opening point of automated crash avoidance systems was that in most cases, they start with warnings at a distance from the potential crash, a driver should have observed the potential danger themselves. It's only when the driver isn't paying attention that such systems are really needed.
A few years ago I was driving along a country road in the dark, I was approaching a cross roads and as I was on the main road, I had right of way, as I approached the cross roads I could see the headlights of a vehicle on the road from the right, I could see the vehicle was travelling too fast and wouldn't be giving way, so I stated to slow, at the last second the driver of the other vehicle realised their error, slammed their brakes on, and came to a stop in the middle of the junction, fortunately I had already stopped before the junction, the other driver waved his apology, he was probably about shaken as to what had happened and waved me past whilst he calmed himself. The point of that is you don't just watch the road in front, you have to watch all around you as well. The faster you travel, the further you look ahead as well to anticipate things, just like the adaptive headlights on my car, at 30mph the light beam concentrates a normal distance along the road, at 70 mph the beam moves to encompass a greater distance in front of the car.
