Big cars kill: 'Monster' vehicles may make Canadians feel safer, but they're ... - National Post
Michelle Taylor’s last words, before she was crushed to death by a truck tire, were, “What does this idiot think he’s doing. With her 83-year-mother in the passenger seat, the 53-year-old high school teacher was driving along Ontario’s Highway 9 in a Buick Regal when a truck started to drift over from the opposing lane. The vehicle was a burgundy Ford pickup customized with off-road tires and an aftermarket “lift kit. A month after the collision, he posted “miss you” on a Facebook photo of a large truck that was presumably the vehicle involved in the crash. Just this year, he was proudly posting photos of his newest rig: a GMC Denali with custom front bumper, off-road tires and, once again, a lift kit. “From the dad’s perspective, it was the smartest thing he could have done,” says Taylor of the parental decision to equip a teenager with a “monster truck. “’I have an irresponsible young lad who’s wanting to drive, I’m going to give him the biggest possible thing on the road so he doesn’t get hurt,’ and sure enough, he never got hurt. They kill because they have stiff frames and they kill because they’re heavier. For every 450 kilograms added to the weight of a car (roughly the difference between a Toyota Prius and a Ford Taurus), a vehicle becomes 40 per cent more likely to turn an otherwise survivable crash into a fatal collision. Source: news.nationalpost.com
