How often have you been on the road and been cut off by an SUV driver who was totally unaware of your existence? It’s an everyday occurrence for people who are driving small cars. SUV’s, especially the bigger ones, give drivers a sensation of being above everyone else around them (they literally are) and will in fact make it seem like they’re the only ones on the road. It’s a nice feeling of liberation and freedom for the driver of the vehicle, but the risk to those surrounding other people start to increase. Unless they’re taken to the country with off road tires and beadlock wheels, it has to be acknowledged that SUV’s are not a responsible way to drive.

It was some time in th1980’s when a style of using off-road vehicles to move around the city and suburbs began to rise in popularity. This trend was of course promoted by the car makers themselves, who sold the SUV with the idea that it was a much safer choice for families, and a much more attractive choice than buying a van.

One advertisement, in particular, was indicative of the American way of thinking about SUV’s. The commercial showed images of a normal sedan and an SUV driving into each other. The SUV came out of the crash relatively in one piece, while the other car was totally demolished. Then the advertisement asked something in the nature of, “If you care about your family, shouldn’t you get an SUV?” The ad caused sales of larger vehicles to skyrocket, as parents began to see SUV’s as the wiser choice for driving out on the street. But you might have noted in the above advertisement what so many drivers happened to miss. While the SUV is obviously safe to be in during such an accident, having such a big heavy object crash into them massively increases the danger to the other car. While driving SUV’s make the street seemingly safer for those inside the vehicle, people in smaller cars on the road will be put in more and more danger.

This did not stop people who wanted SUV’s, from buying one, and the “soccer mom” fashion was born. But there’s another issue not often considered that makes the SUV far less safe than imagined, their tipping point. Due to their design, SUV’s are much more probably to tip over when twisting sharply at high speed. Numerous tests have been done to display that SUVs can by no means be considered safe when they are able to flip so easily.

While these issues have been addressed to a small extent by car manufacturers, the SUV can still not be trusted as a totally safe vehicle. Before you make a purchase of any car, look up the safety records that were produced from independent companies (not the vehicle manufactures webpage) to see how safe it really is to have an SUV. Don’t trust the salesman who says there’s nothing wrong with driving a car twice the height of anything else on the street.