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SUVs have taken over America's roads. Ad campaigns promote them as safer and "greener" than ordinary cars and easy to handle in bad weather. But very little about the SUV's image is accurate. They poorly protect occupants and inflict horrific damage in crashes, they guzzle gasoline, and they are hard to control. Keith Bradsher has been at the forefront in reporting the calamitous safety and environmental record of SUVs, including the notorious Ford-Firestone rollover controversy. In High and Mighty, he traces the checkered history of SUVs, showing how they came to be classified not as passenger cars but as light trucks, which are subject to less strict regulations on safety, gas mileage, and air pollution. He makes a powerful case that these vehicles are even worse than we suspect--for their occupants, for other motorists, for pedestrians and for the planet itself. In the tradition of Unsafe at Any Speed and Fast Food Nation, Bradsher's book is a damning exposé of an industry that puts us all at risk, whether we recognize it or not.… (more)
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In that sense it's a classic text about corporate deception, putting profits ahead of safety in the full knowledge that they were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of their customers and other road users. Bradsher also describes how systems of Government oversight had been emasculated by politicians at the behest of those same Corporations. It's a familiar theme, both from the tobacco industry and the carbon polluting companies fighting recognition of climate change. That - to some extent - the car industry has begun to do something about some of the worst aspects of SUV design, by improving anti-roll characteristics and lowering the front grills, is testament to the power of public shaming, and the influence of corporate insurers.