Opinion

Fearsome four-wheel-drivers

All four-wheel-drives are unacceptably dangerous to all smaller vehicles, a fact that has been confirmed by every serious study into death and injury inflicted by these urban assault vehicles. The US Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, for example, has found that people in a car are four times more likely to be killed in a collision with a four-wheel-drive than with another car. Australian research supports that finding. I make that clear in today's column in The Herald in which I explain how and why my wife has become the owner of an all-wheel-drive soft-roader. As you know wives these days are beyond the influence of their husband, although in her defence I should point out that all-wheel-drive soft-roaders are not urban assault vehicles we've come to fear and loathe.

But, really, the massive four-wheel-drive tank is just a machine. The decision to put one on the road, to drive in a manner that endangers others, to wield the intimidation as a right, is made by a person. And there are quite a few categories of four-wheel-drivers.

There's the doctor's wife, swanning to and from socially crucial lunches with a disdain for people in mere cars. And try-hard survivalists with the winch on the industrial bullbar and desperate for an opportunity to use it. Grubby cousins of these are the gloaters, who were parading through the flooded streets of the Lower Hunter on the Pasha Bulker weekend sending waves of water into flooded houses simply because they could. The polo pukkas in tweed, when their Range Rovers are between breakdowns. The gadget men with the Engel or Waeco wired up in the back to the dual-battery system and an engine-driven hot-water shower that so far has cost them $250 per shower. The lechers leering from high into the cabins of cars, and they're not all in Pajeros (pajero is Spanish for wanker). The four-wheel-drive ferals with Rottweilers or some massive crossbreed they think is even more intimidating.

Undoubtedly women in four-wheel-drives in shopping centre carparks cause the most damage, but which four-wheel-drivers are the most dangerous?

Posted By: Jeff Corbett on 24/02/2009 4:12:14 PM | Comments (26)

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156 to beat!

Posted by chaff and oats, 24/02/2009 5:53:42 PM

The idiot minority are, Jeff. Just as are drivers of any vehicle. My wife and I owned a 4 Wheel drive, no intimidation, no threat, just doing what we loved. Caravaning. Now the 4 x 4 and van have gone, a second hand motor home has taken their place and off we go again. JUST DO IT, hope to see you on the road some time. Travel safe.

Posted by intouch, 24/02/2009 10:03:36 PM

Although I agree with your sentiments about 4WDs and their owners, I can't believe that you still peddle the urban myth about the meaning of "pajero" in Spanish. A simple Google search will show that it means "one who deals in straw, and carries it about for sale".

Posted by moron, 25/02/2009 6:49:07 AM

Urban myth or not, I like it.

Posted by Jeff Corbett on 25/02/2009 8:54:19 AM

Gee Jeff this one has been done over before! But i guess i will put my bit in, 4x4s around school start and finish times. The drivers usually hanging over the back dishing out instructions, going slow or super fast. Is it part of the Australian Road Rules that you must pick up and deliver children in a 4x4?

Posted by buell, 25/02/2009 9:17:18 AM

I don't understand why anyone would want a 4WD unless they are really going to go off road (that excused all wheel drive sedans etc, which are safe). They just don't make sense. Maybe they are a symbol of machoness (a phallic symbol?). I suspect a large proportion of people that own 4WDs, but never leave the tar, feel that they need to prove something, most probably to themselves. They tend to own big, dumb dogs, lots of 'big boys toys', and probably like monster trucks. Everyone else thinks they are dopes. The most dangerous 4WD drivers are the ones that believe that they are safer in a big 4WD, and to hell wit hthe rest of us. They seem to take the view that their safety is more important than that of other road users, whose safety is compromised by the 4WD owners vehicle and attitude. I can't wait for the oil to run out, so these belching dunderheads have to shoehorn themselves and their delusional egos into a Prius.

Posted by StopPayingTheBludgers, 25/02/2009 9:26:10 AM

[This one will run out of puff, Chaff].

Posted by StopPayingTheBludgers, 25/02/2009 9:29:48 AM

That gloater who was parading through the flooded streets of the Lower Hunter on the Pasha Bulker weekend sending waves of water into flooded houses simply because he could was a friend of mine who helped me when my car was stuck full of water in the junction.

Posted by City Lady, 25/02/2009 9:53:12 AM

As the owner of a 4WD, I still agree with much of what you say. My vehicle is not quite a soft roader, but certainly not a tank either - an old but low km turbo diesel machine which does an average of about 20 km /week. In my view, registration and insurance should be based on the weight, engine capacity, and distance travelled per annum. This would act as a deterrent to purchase of these (and indeed any overly large vehicle) and provide an incentive to drive them less frequently. Hopefully this would encourage those who do not need such a vehicle to reconsider their purchase, and for those whose journeys are mostly around the city, preferably a hybrid (for the record, we have such a machine in the family and it gets extensive use).

Posted by Directeur Sportif, 25/02/2009 10:04:18 AM

So because he helped you City Lady, he is not a pajero?

Posted by moron, 25/02/2009 10:45:30 AM

Someone once told me that she got a 4x4 because studies show that the safest place to be in an accident was in a 4x4. I tried to explain that 4x4s make an accident even more serious for a normal car to which she responded "Just as well I'm the one in the 4x4" To answer your question, the most dangerous 4x4 drivers are the narcissists

Posted by Renegade79, 25/02/2009 11:15:51 AM

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