How often have you been driving and been cut off by an SUV driver who was completely unaware of your existence? It’s an everyday occurrence for those of us driving small cars. SUV’s, especially the larger ones, give drivers a feeling like they are above everyone else around them (they literally are) and can in fact make it seem like it’s only them who are on the road. It’s a great feeling of liberation and space for the driver of the SUV, but the risk to those around 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 safe way to drive.

It was during th1980’s when a trend of using off-road vehicles to move around the city and suburbs began to rise in popularity. This trend was of course encouraged by the car makers themselves, who advertised the SUV with the notion that it was a much better choice for families, and a much more attractive choice than buying a van.

One commercial, in particular, was indicative of the American way of considering SUV’s. The commercial showed footage of a normal sedan and an SUV driving into each other. The SUV finished the crash relatively in one piece, while the smaller car was totally demolished. Then the commercial asked something in the nature of, “If you worry about your family, shouldn’t you get an SUV?” The ad caused sales of larger vehicles to skyrocket, as people began to see SUV’s as the safer choice for driving out on the street. But you may 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 greatly increases the danger to the other car. While driving SUV’s make the street seemingly safer for those within the vehicle, people in smaller automobiles on the road will be put in more and more danger.

This did not stop those who wanted SUV’s, from getting one, and the “soccer mom” trend 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 turning sharply at high speed. Numerous tests have been done to show that SUVs can by no means be thought of as safe when they can flip so easily.

While these problems have been addressed to some extent by car manufacturers, the SUV can’t 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 believe the salesman who tells you there’s nothing wrong with taking a car double the height of anything else on the street.