Horrific Ford Explorer roll-over accident:

[speeder]

I can't post a link from my iPhone, (and LA Times requires registration), but there was a horrible Ford Explorer/blown tire/roll-over accident over the weekend in L.A. where the SUV rolled and fell off a freeway bridge onto the street below, killing most of a family.

You can google it, is this problem unique in any way to this vehicle or does it happen a lot to Tahoes and the like?

[rouxroux]

Sad to hear. I can not understand why people in SUV's drive like they think it is a smaller vehicle with a lower center of gravity. I guess being in a "larger vehicle" gives them the feeling os super powers and safety.

[rouxroux]

I do remember a few years back an OEM-specific tire problem. Add in heat and some people riding around with under inflated tires, and you've got trouble

[Icemaster]

Originally Posted by rouxroux

I do remember a few years back an OEM-specific tire problem. Add in heat and some people riding around with under inflated tires, and you've got trouble

That was the Firestone fiasco. Affected Rangers and narrow body explorers.

[LakeCleElum]

No experience with any SUV, but I see idiots daily driving thru the mountains on I-90 (summer and winter/snow) like it's the 1st lap of the Indy 500......They should be driven like the trucks that they are....

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Buh-buh-but they're BIGGER so they must be SAFER!!!

(sadly this is the idiotic "logic" that has applied to vehicle purchase decision-making for too many people for a long time - it reached a crecendo during the mid-2000s when the "go git wun bigger'n ur neighbors" SUV craze was all the rage).

Very sad for all involved.

[Zeke]

My PU "truck" handles much better than a SUV. There is no comparison to a truck. Even a bus handles better. Was behind one the other day as a passenger and saw a very low tire in front of us. I said get away from this accident waiting to happen.

[RonDent]

Too many owners think the "S" stands for Sportscar!

[126coupe]

Where I live there are thousands of giant SUV's.
Here is the conversation between the Golf addict husband and the fake blonde soccer mom. " Honey, I'm buying you(actually renting) the biggest SUV on the market, I want you and the kids as safe as possible"

American car buying public is just plain stupid. Lets take this truck chassis, add a giant top heavy body, slap a whole bunch of plastic chrome all over, put in a plush cheesy leather interior with lots of fake wood, add a crazy video/audio system, put on ridiculously large chrome wheels and low and behold the american car buying public buys into it.

And yes lousy gas mileage.

[Dane Brown]

Few years back my friends ford exploder rolled and rejected him from the vehicle killing him instantly, due to rear tire blowing out.. Very unsafe vehicle would never buy one.

Sent from my SCH-M828C using Tapatalk 2

[Dane Brown]

Sorry I ment ejected*

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[RonDent]

Conversation I had with someone I knew.
"Why did you buy that thing?"
"I want my family to be safe on the highway."
"Then slow down."

[Oh Haha]

Originally Posted by RonDent

Conversation I had with someone I knew.
"Why did you buy that thing?"
"I want my family to be safe on the highway."
"Then slow the @#$% down!"

Fixed that for ya!

I hate SUVs. I am currently working on getting the wife to get rid of our stupid Suquinox and go back to a mini-van. She won't go for another station wagon like our 5 series BMW.

[Buckterrier]

I got stuck on I80 in Pa. a few years ago because of a snow storm, highway shut down due to accident. Got off eventually & stayed at a hotel. The next morning was beautiful sunshine. I get back on 80 and as I'm driving it looked like a war zone. And to a vehicle all of them off the road, down a hill, in the median, etc. was an SUV. This went on for miles.
I know this sounds cold but I have no sympathy for piss poor drivers, regardless of their chosen flavor.

If yur goin' to crash do it on a track like me

[ted]

failed the moose test?

[mikeesik]

this again.
news.

[MMARSH]

Originally Posted by ted

failed the moose test?

Looks like the Volvo SUV handles that just fine as would a Porsche SUV me thinks.

[jyl]

With a passenger car, be it sedan or station wagon, it is almost impossible to roll the car on flat asphalt, absent a tripping mechanism (curb, soft shoulder, change of elevation, tire off rim, etc). The car will slide out before it rolls, no matter how insane your steering input. Okay, maybe you can do it, but it would be really hard.

With most traditional American truck based SUVs, you can roll them. In the moose video, you can see how easily that Cherokee could have been rolled. If the driver had jerked the wheel harder or slammed the brakes, it would have gone over. That was presumably a skilled driver in the video. A doofus (average) driver might well have rolled it. I do not think most traditional truck based, body-on-frame SUVs are different. Explorer or not. That is based on years litigating rollover cases involving Ford and AMC/Jeep vehicles.

The new SAV vehicles, like the Cayenne or Volvo etc, I am not sure. In addition to not being truck-based, they have a bunch of electronic stability control to help.

[john70t]

Originally Posted by jyl

That was presumably a skilled driver in the video. A doofus (average) driver might well have rolled it.

Therein lies the problem.
The focus of the transportation regulatory bodies isn't to reduce accidents. It's to increase speeds(gasoline taxes), add more heavy safety features(service sales), and add more electronic gismo distractions(sales tax).
An extra benefit is taxes from accident costs.

[VINMAN]

Originally Posted by Zeke

My PU "truck" handles much better than a SUV. There is no comparison to a truck. Even a bus handles better. .

I agree. My 3500 Ram handles WAAYY better then my Jeep Grand Cherokee. No comparison.