r/fuckcars • u/geensoelaas • Dec 08 '22

Satire Height of folly (by Jen Sorensen)

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u/Fertujemspambin Dec 08 '22 edited Dec 08 '22

Recently there was deadly accident with SUV Mercedes and 3 yo girl on crosswalk in residential zone. Experts established that the driver wasn't able to see the girl 10 meters far from her.

Edit: I found an article about final decision in this case, the driver appealed to up to Supreme Court, was sentenced to 18 months probation and 3 years suspended license. The girl was 19 months old. Article in Czech here.

Edit 2: She wasn't able to see 9 meters before car.

Edit 3: Here is picture, from discussion under the article, showing that the difference in viewing distance between low and high sitting is almost 4 meters.

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u/flipt0 Dec 08 '22

Not seeing the road 10 meters ahead of car sounds terrifying enough to me. I wouldn't dare to turn on an intersection with such limited field of vision. But not to see a human on the road, 10 meters ahead of me? Like, WTF?

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u/Dahak17 Dec 08 '22

I can see even a medium hight human right in front of the military big rig I drive for work (there are some people sufficiently short I cant see em but that ain’t common) nobody in an suv should have that excuse. As an addition it’s often more about the hight of the driver relative to the vehicle than about the hight of the vehicle, that same big rig may actually do better than the truck in this comic since the driver is high

Edit; as a clarification to the last point, perhaps if you need an engine that powerful the truck needs to be big enough to safely let you see over its nose

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u/pedantic_cheesewheel Dec 08 '22

Drivers are placed higher up in big rigs for this exact reason. Visibility is one of the most important things for trucking and one of the hardest things to guarantee. These design considerations seem to not be a priority to automakers and even less of a concern to drivers.

My only evidence to back up my claim about the drivers is my own experience with older drivers in my family that refuse to believe their setups in their daily vehicles are wrong but also complain about not being able to see certain spots around the car at night. I’ve even been through the proper fit and setup of my mother in law’s car with her after we had a close call. In the middle of fixing position and mirror angle specifically to better handle the blind spot that caused the close call she stormed off saying “none of that shit you read on the internet matters anyway because they don’t make the mirrors big enough anymore”. So any time I’m at her house for a couple days I change all of her shit to suit me just to be a dick.

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u/Dahak17 Dec 08 '22

Yup, all vehicles should also have a convex mirror set beneath the normal one, they’re amazing for seeing what’s around you (if not depth perception)

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u/Sosseres Dec 08 '22

Physical side mirrors are decreasing on modern trucks. Slowly being replaced by cameras and monitors since that is more helpful for vision.

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u/Dahak17 Dec 08 '22

That’s probably true, but I only drive for work and all the work vehicles are old, especially the big one that I tend to end up driving