The Bourbon Logs

SUV’s are not only Stupid Urban Vehicles, they are also DOP’s (Deadly tO Pedestrians), according to a report in the British Medical Journal. Forbes has a piece on this story, excerpted below:

PARIS (AFX) - Sport utility vehicles (SUVs), already targeted by environmentalists for their emissions, should carry health warnings because they heighten the danger to pedestrians, the British

Medical Journal (BMJ) said.

An editorial in next Saturday’s issue of the BMJ points out that the risk of fatality when an SUV collides with a pedestrian is nearly twice that of a similar event involving a passenger car.

The reason for this is not the SUV’s larger size and mass, but its higher hood, it says.

When a passenger car hits a pedestrian, its bumper typically strikes the legs, the leading edge of the hood then hits the femur or pelvis and the pedestrian then folds downward, hitting the hood or windshield.

This so-called ‘wrap and carry’ movement means that a lot of the energy of impact is likely to be transferred to the more pliable steel of the bonnet, the BMJ said.

In addition, the key organs of the upper body are less likely to get directly hit.

But with an SUV, there is no folding movement — the high, blunt front end of the vehicle hits the vital organs directly, doubling the injuries to vulnerable regions as the head, thorax and abdomen.

Great, now that’s another reason to pick me up a Hummer: might help get rid of those pesky pedestrians….