" From: Marc Montoni <Freedom@xxxxxxxx> " " " [] " " " Let's take what happened to Tom and his family as a call to action. " If you have aging parents who shouldn't be driving, get them off the " road. Find a physician who is diligent about getting incompetent " drivers off the road, take your relative to them for assessment, and " be proactive by telling him *why* you think they are unsafe and should " be off the road. my mother, who is closing in on 90, stopped driving voluntarily two years ago after a couple of low-speed accidents, and sold her car. they may have been her fault. she had a new-ish toyota with drive-by-wire throttle... she still has her license. she's not likely to use it again. " By the way, I don't believe the deaths can be attributed to not " wearing seat belts. Jeeps were never known for their crash " protection; and of course they didn't get air bags until 1995. The " chassis is a French-designed, light semi-unibody, and they come apart " pretty easily in a crash. i have to disagree here. airbags were always intended to -supplement- seat belts, not -replace- them. belts were and are supposed to be the first line of defense. jeeps are classed as trucks, and don't have to meet car crash standards. they are as crashworthy as many other small vehicles, including such 'trucks' as the chrysler pt cruiser, which also exploit this loophole. many japanese suvs are brought in as 'cars' to avoid heavy truck-import duty, then sold as 'trucks' to avoid car safety, emissions, and mileage rules. i might also add that the cherokee was recently rated one of the 10 most durable vehicles in the us today, along with such others as the mercedes e300. that doesn't sound like something that comes apart easily. did renault really have much to do with jeep design, apart from making advanced tools available? " http://www2.nbc4i.com/mgmedia/image/500/0/53142/madison-4x-crash/ " " Ask a cop. Collisions where one or more of the vehicles are traveling " at a high rate of speed (above about 45-50 mph) *often* involve " fatalities, regardless of belts, crumple zones, front or side curtain " air bags, and so on. momentum is proportional to the square of speed, so the amount dissipated in a crash goes up rapidly. -- finally, i didn't know tom, but his name registers and given my head for names that means something to me. ________________________________________________________________________ Andrew Hay the genius nature internet rambler is to see what all have seen adh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and think what none thought _______________________________________________ AMC-list mailing list AMC-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://list.amc-list.com/listinfo.cgi/amc-list-amc-list.com