BLAME THE HIPPIES FOR TODAY'S GENERATION OF LOW-RIDING CARS

Your editorial "Boosting SUV safety" (Journal, Dec. 8) describes SUVs,
mini-vans and small trucks as unsafe and dangerous because in
collisions with cars passengers of the car suffer most of the
fatalities and injuries.

There seems to be this contradiction: If those in the car suffer more
is it not the cars which are more dangerous to sit in? But you blame
the fact that the bumpers and frames of SUVs and trucks are about 20
centimetres higher than those of cars, and suggest that therefore they
should be lowered by law.

What utter nonsense. Pickup trucks are designed to drive across farm
fields and pastures, construction sites, etc. Farmers' trucks have to
have at least 30 cm (one foot) of clearance above ground so they can
cross a swath in the field. SUVs are used for driving through the
same conditions or worse, and have to go where there are no roads or
snow plows.

They are used by people having to drive up logging trails, get around
in timbered cattle pastures, and often have to drive over fallen trees
buried in snow. It cannot be done with lower ground clearance.

However, you can raise cars. As it is now, cars are too low. The 1930s
cars were about 60 cm off the ground, and had tires 90 cm in diameter.
They seldom got stuck, even if the only roads then were mud, or
unplowed snow. The reason is that larger diameter wheels roll easier
over obstacles and use less power to do so. As late as 1948, cars were
about 30 cm off the ground, and had the same bumper height as the
pickup trucks of those days.

Along comes the marijuana generation and they reinvent the wheel so
cars now are as low as 10 cm off the ground, with tires half the
diameter of what they had been.

Needless to say they now get stuck in a mere 10 cm of snow, and what
is worse, nobody can get a shovel underneath to dig them out.

Some will say cars were lowered to make getting in easier. That's a
lot of bull, because the lower the seat is dropped the harder it is
for the physically challenged to get their behind out of it. The proof
is that now many of the SUV drivers are little ladies who seem to have
no trouble getting in or out.

A.K. Zimmer,

St. Albert