The overprotected generation has continued past the age of 16. You know what I mean; that generation that is almost loved to the point of being smothered with their ever present helmets and padding. Before the age of 16 that was almost sweet. After the age of 16 it is no such thing.
Caring parents have bought their offspring SUVs to drive to soothe away their fear for their babies. Why not? SUVs have some of the best crash test ratings ever found. Little Ethel or little Jonah need all the protection they can get, right? In this case I don’t see it as harmless.
Little Ethel and Jonah are new, 16 year old drivers. They have yet to experience make or break experiences in their driving and are still novices.
In fact their inexperience says they are some of the worst drivers on the road. And their parents are buying them an SUV, some of the biggest vehicles on the road.
I have a newsflash for you. The bigger the vehicle, the better its crash test rating. And those of us in normal cars are going to have worse results in accidents especially involving bigger vehicles. Ethel and Jonah might be protected as well as can be but the other vehicles on the road are now less protected against some of the worst drivers.
It took a few years but car sellers are scaling up their game. They now have body superstructures that are performing better in crash tests. Maybe one day they will perform as well as SUVs.
You can tell SUVs perform better in a crash test just by glancing at them and realizing their size. Perhaps the smaller cars could use some of that psychological warfare on the roads. Perhaps they can have superstructures that make them look like a bullet or an arrow. Perhaps this would make little Ethel and Jonah make sure they were practicing good driving techniques.
But just remember, if we make cars perform better than SUVs in crash tests, Little Ethel and Jonah’s parents will just buy them that car. I wish I could see a way that was fairer. But it seems destined that overprotective parents are going to make some of the worst drivers into the most dangerous drivers no matter what we do.
