Student Killed Driving Solar Car

Lev13than writes "Tragedy struck the University of Toronto's Blue Sky Solar Racing Team on Thursday when 21-year old student Andrew Frow was killed in a car accident. It appears that Frow lost control of the low-riding experimental car and was struck by a minivan head-on. The team was driving from Stratford to Waterloo (about an hour west of Toronto) as part of a tour of universities in Ontario and Quebec to mark the one-year anniversary of the 2003 Blackout. This is a big setback for solar power advocates, especially as the blackout anniversary will pass with remedial legislation stranded in Congress. More information on the accident is available here." The vehicle's design is not really street-safe - this will be a problem as more efficient, lighter cars share the road with Hummers.

Comments

It's sad

[Anonymous Coward]

Some people seem more concerned about the car.

Re:It's sad

[iplayfast]

Concern for the student, at this point is worthless (he's beyond that).
Concern for his family, is worthwhile.
Concern for his concerns is worthwhile.
Concern for the car is also worthwhile, since it is a positive concept that may be damaged by this tragic accident.

Re:bad design, not the power

[TiMac]

Fairly tough to make a sturdy car that is also lightweight enough to be driven by low-power solar generation...

doesn't matter if it's a hummer or not.

[Anonymous Coward]

It wouldn't matter if it hit the road with Yugos, it would still get crushed. An unsafe, feather-weight car will lose to anything -- not just a hummer. Nice attempt to jab at large vehicles.

WTF?!?

[Dr. Bent]

this will be a problem as more efficient, lighter cars share the road with Hummers.

Sure, lets blame the big, bad, SUV because your car is unsafe. I realize that the Hummer is the mortal enemy of solar car advoates everywhere but how is this possibly relevant? If you follow that logic we should ban Semi-trucks from the road as well. We've got to make it safe for experimental solar car vehicles, right?

Gimme a break. This is a tragedy, and you're trying to spin in into an anti-SUV infomercial.

Re:WTF?!?

[gurps_npc]

Semi-trucks are in fact SAFER than the hummer.

You need a better license, more inspections, a better driving record.

And the legal requirements for making a semi-truck require it to be built far safer.

One of the problems with Hummers, unlike Semi-trucks, is that they have high bumpers. These bumpers sometimes start ABOVE the bumber/hood of a small vehicle.

Semi-trucks are legally required to have lower bumpers that alway make contact with the small car bumpers.

Re:bad design, not the power

[timeOday]

I vote let's not view this as a broader issue at all. A young researcher was killed in a tragic accident while driving an experimental vehicle. Why can't we just be bummed about it instead of speculating about what it means for solar power, or debating whether somebody should be sued.

Re:SUVs shouldn't really be a problem...

[drinkypoo]

Really we ought to require people who want to get a commercial use tax discount to have a commercial license. People driving with a commercial license are (supposedly) held to a higher standard than others, and can easily lose their license (or at least their commercial certification) if pulled over and cited for a traffic violation while driving anything, commercial or not.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:bad design, not the power

[bfields]

Fairly tough to make a sturdy car that is also lightweight enough to be driven by low-power solar generation...

This was a 2-lane highway (with typical speeds around 55mph, if I remember that area right?), and the solar car was hit when it swerved into the oncoming lane. That could be a fatal even for someone driving a larger vehicle.

So the more interesting question to me would be what caused the driver lost control.

--Bruce Fields

Re:It isn't about the weight of the car.

[hb253]

Somewhat tongue in cheek, but...

That's because Japan is one big traffic jam. Cars in cities rarely exceed walking speed.

Perspective from another solar car team

[zaius]

It is incredibly sad that the substance of the debate here is whether there should be large cars on the road, and on who is ultimately to blame for this tragedy. (The entire discussion can be summarized as follows: somebody threw in a typical Hummer insult, SUV owners became defensive and started saying silly things about research not having a place in the world, everyone comes out looking like insensitive clods)

This won't be the end of solar racing, although it will be a significant setback for the Toronto team. They have lost a friend, a teammate and many, many, many hours of work, spent not only building their car but also convincing people that their cause is worth supporting. The team has a solid history--they placed 11th in the 2003 American Solar Challenge (and won the saftey award), 12th in ASC2001, 14th in WSC2001, and they were the top rookie team in SunRayce 1999 (info from their website).

I imagine that the future will see a serious review of solar car saftey rules, which will result in changes to the specifications for solar cars as well as the conditions under which they should be driven. Even though solar powered cars are not the way of the future, the sport has led to the develompent of new technologies that are nevertheless important (the world's most effiecient electric motors and maximum power point trackers), and it teaches young engineers far more about engineering than they could possibly learn in any other way.

A public show of support (and /. counts as these days) is really what the BlueSky team needs right now. Then, after the incident has been properly observed, a respectful review of the causes and solutions should get underway.

Jeff Thompson
Yale Solar Racing