Good comments... but, of course, I was discounting the possibility that
anyone would be rallying in an open car, with their kids in the back, in the
snow... <g>
As for unpredictability, well, that's just the nature of life. You could
keep the kids safely locked up in the basement full-time, and a sudden
tornado might drop the rest of the house on 'em.
While driving in traffic is an inherently risky activity, my point was that
there was no reason to particularly single out the possibility of rollover
as a hazard with the typical 4-seater convertible, when many supposedly
"safe" vehicles such as SUVs and minivans are much more susceptible. And
while one could argue that, yes, an Explorer is more likely to roll over,
but is still better protected if it does, I would say it's still a better
bet to keep the shiny side up -- and I think the accident statistics back me
up on this. Otherwise, drive sanely, watch out for the other guy, and if a
gyppo bobtail loses its brakes, flies through a red light and takes you out,
well, that's just how it goes...
on 10/9/01 11:25 AM, Barney Gaylord at barneymg@ntsource.com wrote:
> At 10:10 AM 10/9/01 -0700, Max Heim wrote:
>> .... but I wonder, are we getting too paranoid? Let me just ask the list:
>> how many of you have ever rolled over in an automobile? Were you a child
>> at the time? Were there any children in the vehicle at the time? I would
>> almost think that the probability was so small as to be negligible. ....
>
> Yup, BTDT, thankfully no kids in the car at the time, although my kid does
> ride with me quite often. This will happen in the most unpredictable of
> curcumstances (of course if you could predict it you could avoid it). The
> probability is indeed small, but not negligable.
>
> We were chatting about this very subject about five years ago on this list,
> often mentioning how unlikely it would be to have your car roll over. Then
> just a couple of weeks later my car was upside down in a ditch near
> Redwing, Minnesota, during a TSD rally with a set average speed of 30
> mph. At the time of the incident I was going down hill at less than 20 mph
> with no other traffic on the road. It was a narrow crowned country road,
> and it was snow packed and slippery. The tires just lost the grip, and the
> car skidded slowly but surely off the crown of the road and into the
> ditch. The road bank was sloped about 45 degrees down, and the ditch was
> increasingly deep, until all four wheels were off the road and on the
> embankment. I was hard on the brakes with the wheels locked up and slowing
> down gradually as it was sliding down the hill in the ditch. Just before
> it came to a full stop there was a really small bump, not more than two
> inches high. When the left front wheel hit this bump the car flipped
> squarely upside down in snow bank.
>
> By sheer coinicidence this was not my MGA, but was my '87 Mazda RX7. The
> windscreen was pretty well crushed, the front several inches of the roof
> was badly wrinkled, but otherwise only a few minor sheet metal dents
> elsewhere. I was wearing the seatbelt with single shoulder strap, so not a
> scratch on me, and it was all rather interresting at the time. I had
> originally planned on driving the MGA in this rally with a friend, but the
> friend couldn't make it at the last minute. Since I was going to run the
> rally solo I took the RX7 because it has nice map lights. Sometimes we
> just get lucky?
>
> With my MGA in times past I have been inadvertently off the road and across
> the dtich a couple of times, and even glanced off a guard rail at speed
> once. More than 30 years ago I t-boned a Plymouth Fury at about 40 mph
> with an MGA when some drunk turned in front of me at an intersection
> (totaled that MGA of course). I have also been autocrossing regularly for
> the last 10 or 12 years (which I consider to be at least as safe as driving
> on the open roads), and I drive this car around 17,000 miles per year
> (average). But still I do not have a roll bar in my MGA. I might have
> installed one several years ago, except for the difficulty of fitting one
> in the MGA.
>
> You can argue all you want about how unlikely a rollover would be, but
> accidents by definition are unpredictable and unavoidable to some
> extent. During our 1997 "Brit Run to the Sun" trip to Alaska one of our
> compatriots was killed when his MGB GT rolled on its side and hit a tree,
> crushing the roof. It is unlikely that a single hoop roll bar would have
> made any difference in this unusual case. This was a single car incident
> on a straight clear and dry highway with no other traffic around. Those
> with a strong constitution can see the pictures and notes here:
> http://www.chicagolandmgclub.com/members/barneymg/ak/pic6/6-4.htm
>
> Barney Gaylord
> 1958 MGA with an attitude
> http://www.ntsource.com/~barneymg
>
--
Max Heim
'66 MGB GHN3L76149
If you're near Mountain View, CA,
it's the primer red one with chrome wires
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