Road Accidents in Malaysia- 4WD vs Smaller Vehicle

I was reading an online newspaper about a fatal accident happened in a small town in Malaysia today. Three person from a family killed on the spot. Head on collison, involving a car and a 4WD vehicle aka Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV).

SUV is considered a safe and convenient vehicle perceived by many people from my home state, that is Sabah. This is because, Sabah roads are not as good as in Peninsular Malaysia, where the big city named Kuala Lumpur is located. As for that, many people owns 4WD although the market price is considered quite expensive compared to similar capacity vehicle. However, "Road Tax" is a lot cheaper in Sabah (East Malaysia) compared to Peninsular Malaysia (West Malaysia) - most roads in Sabah are not sealed with tarmac.

OK...my main story is actually about road accidents- which involved SUV vehicles.

SUV vehicles are built with bumpers that are positioned higher (from the road surface level) than other non SUVs. So what is the point of having a BUMPER? It triggers my memory of having read an article about the purpose of bumpers fitted on a vehicle, (I was around 7 yrs old at that time). Most vehicle have steel, rubber or plastic bumpers. Some even fitted with 'shock absorbers' (Nissan Sunny 130Y, 1980s car) and also filled with foams in order to absorb the impact of any collision. I think SUVs are not designed based on this basics, not only the bumpers are not the same height as other vehicle, but also it is made of very hard steel.

Just imagine when an SUV collided with the lateral side of a car, not only the car has to absorb more energy from the collision, but at the same time the SUV bumper will penetrate into the car and could cause severe injury or maybe fatal incident.

Another thing is about the higher tendency for SUV to roll-over. The height of SUV is relatively higher than others, this would increased the Center of Gravity (CG) for SUVs. And this, will promote to higher possiblity for SUVs to roll-over. This is a very dangerous situation, it is even worst with the stiffer body an SUVs have. Tilting and rolling over on other smaller sized vehicles could occur, the rolling SUV with its weight and stiffer body could easily "sandwiched" a smaller sized cars . Again, smaller cars have to absorb the impact of such collission.

I have my experience driving many types of SUVs, there are many not-so-good experiences...however, with some tips from many SUV owners, I did learn many precautions and I will keep it as a good practice when I purchase my own SUV in future.