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Old October 28th 18, 01:26 AM posted to uk.rec.cycling
JNugent[_10_]
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Posts: 350
Default Woman, 60, jailed for running over cyclist she ‘thought he was a scarecrow’

On 27/10/2018 16:20, Bret Cahill wrote:
A 60-year-old woman has been jailed for running over a man lying on the
road and driving off because she ‘thought he was a scarecrow’. Marian
Watt, of South Town Road, Alton, Hampshire, was sentenced to one year at
Winchester Crown Court after she was found guilty of causing serious
injury by dangerous driving. Laurence John, 55, was left with
‘life-changing injuries’ after he was hit by the 3,300kg (519st) Toyota
Land Cruiser on a narrow road outside the Yew Tree pub in Alresford on
25 November, last year.

https://metro.co.uk/2018/10/26/woman...3/?ito=cbshare

SUVs are actually a reaction to the "metric engine" Ford Pinto. Obese Americans would bust the suspension system in the Pinto which became one sorry looking vehicle after that, even sorrier looking after a fat person emerged.

The solution: Create an oversize vehicle that would still look jaunty after the suspension was destroyed by obesity.

If Musk wants to fight AGW he might want to take another look at suspension systems. Or fast food.

Just don't mention my name.


What the Americans call "the SUV" has arguably been in production in the
UK since the late 1940s.


Originally in the form of the rather utilitarian Land Rover, the genre
was brought up to date in the very late sixties with the design of the
Range Rover, followed by many variants of that car and lots of copyist
models made by other makers around the world, including Toyota (see above).


While it could never snorkel through deep water with 4 wheel drive, the GM Suburban, a station wagon on a truck chassis, dates back to 1935. It's still just about the largest most fuel guzzling personal vehicle on the road. I saw a new one in a parking lot yesterday, surprised they still made them.

Rental cars are always advertising "free upgrades" because fewer and fewer want to rent large vehicles even in the U. S.


Yes - I unexpectedly scored a free upgrade to a Cadillac last time I was
in the USA. I'd paid for "full size" (which as you know, is smaller than
a Caddy).

The situation today is that there is a significant niche market for such
vehicles, though it is also reflected in more everyday European volume
car terms with the emergence over the last twenty or so years of the
"people carrier" (eg, the Citroen Picasso).


There is no reason to believe that the Range Rover was designed as a
reaction to any Ford model. But SUVs were a reaction to the Range Rover.


Range Rovers -- Mom once called my sister's a "Ranch Rover" -- were popularized on African wildlife shows 3 decades before the spike in U. S. obesity and the subsequent rise of SUVs. The obesity theory has already been independently confirmed by another poster on alt.global-warming. You can get inside of small cars and hi viz if you are tall but it's disgusting if you are obese.


It's difficult to get into a standard (low slung) car if you have back
problems, too. But not with a people carrier or SUV.

It was going to happen anyway but the Ford Pinto bottoming out suspension gave the SUV an extra strong launch. The 2 l engine was a good idea, however.

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