On the road last week I got a call from my wife.
“Steve we’re all right,” she said.
“All right! What do you mean all right?” I screamed into the cell phone.
Don’t you just love those calls? Someone calls to reassure you before you’ve any clue something is wrong. Scary as hell.
After our old van bit the dust, we’d been borrowing a jeep from some friends, with the understanding we were going to buy it when a deposit matured and we could take the money without penalty.
What she was calling to tell me was the jeep had rolled over on the highway when she was taking our son to school.
The jeep landed on the roof and they hung upside-down until a passerby broke out the window with a hammer. She had a small scratch. My son didn’t have a mark on him, though he cried all the way home and he’s still a little shook up.
I told him, “Hey, don’t be glum. You’ve going to be the coolest kid in school!”
My little girl was not in the car, and I think she thinks she missed something really fun.
The trooper who worked the accident said it was the fourth rollover that morning, and one later proved fatal when the driver died in the hospital later that week.
Last winter I reseached an article on rollovers – take note 80 percent of fatalities are among those not belted in. And… while SUVs are more likely to roll over, occupants are more likely to survive in those tank-like vehicles.
Well, “You broke it you buy it.”
Do I mind? Not a bit. I sure as hell couldn’t spend the money to bring them back if things had been as bad as they might have!
So you green freaks who hate SUVs – I’d like to strap you into a VW, set the cruise control on high, and send you down a steep hill round a curve onto a sheet of ice!