so Tim Hobbs was, like...
> On 16 Sep 2005 07:27:28 -0700, davepseudonym@hotmail.com wrote:
>
>>
>> Tim Hobbs wrote:
>>> The oft-spouted nonsense
>>> about them being the safest vehicle on the road is exactly that.
>>
>> Is it?
>>
>> http://www.roadlincs.com/Content/Car/Docs/makemodel.pdf
>>
>> Go to page 10. These are actual Govt statistics based on 4 years of
>> actual injury accidents, not some theoretical or lab-based NCAP
>> tests.
>>
>> You will see the Defender and Discovery get the lowest scores of all
>> vehicles, roughly three times better than a Volvo.
>>
>> DaveP
>
> Site is broken at present.
Looks OK to me.
> However, if it is the report I read previously (and it may not be) the
> survey showed that in fatal accidents the survivors were most likely
> to be driving a Defender.
>
> That has since been interpreted as meaning that Defenders are the
> safest vehicles on the road. What it actually shows is that
>
> a) accidents are more likely to be fatal if the other car is a
> Defender
> b) Defenders are more likely to have accidents in the first place
Sounds like it's not the same report, then. This one examines the stats for
two-car injury accidents 1996-2000, and scores cars according to the
statistical likelihood of death or serious injury from being in said
vehicle, standardised. Defender/Disco scores 1 (1% likelihood of
death/serious injury in 2-car injury accident), Volvo 900 3 (3%, etc),
Fourtrak 4, Suzuki SJ 6, and so on.
It does not take into account the likelihood of the vehicle to have an
accident in the first place (although I would have thought Def/Disco were
quite low down on the list anyway, being comparatively slow and unattractive
to the boy racer brigade).
> It also neatly excludes
> collisions not involving other vehicles (e.g. with trees, walls and
> other items that cannot donate a crumple zone).
I take your point there. Other people's crumple zones are so comforting.
> YMMV, but if I had the choice of car to drive into an accident (of any
> type, but especially involving leaving the road, hitting a solid
> object or other high vehicle) I'd put Defender at the very bottom of
> my list.
>
> No crumple zone
> No airbag
> No ABS
> No roll cage
> No side protection
> High centre of gravity
> Masses of hard structures in cab
> No belt pre-tensioners
YMMV too - there is a stack of anecdotal evidence of people walking away
from accidents in Land Rovers (trees, walls, 60ft drops into rivers, as well
as other cars) when in other vehicles they might have been much worse. Yes,
might - it's all a bit imponderable at this level. You have to make your
own choices. I am perfectly happy carrying my own or other people's kids in
my Disco, or the Series.
Have a look at this little bit of local news:
http://www.thisispembrokeshire.net/pembrokeshire/news/NEWS9.html
4WD tractor broken in two, Discovery with damage to front end, but not as
serious as you'd think from the state of the tractor. Happily, all
occupants were OK. I'm not sure a normal car would have stood up as well.
--
Rich
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Disco 300 Tdi auto
S2a 88" SW
Tiggrr (V8 trialler)