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

Re:Hummers

[letxa2000]

The vehicle's design is not really street-safe - this will be a problem as more efficient, lighter cars share the road with Hummers.

Of course the standard environmentalist wacko response will be that we should get rid of the Hummers while, in reality, this just goes to show that cars that aren't street-safe shouldn't be driven on the street. Again, it seems that alternative energy vehicles aren't ready for prime-time. Someday, perhaps.

vehicular arms race

[tverbeek]

Hummers, Ford Extinctions, and the like are already a menace to lighter, more energy-efficient vehicles, regardless of power source. There's an arms race taking place on our roads, as drivers opt for better armament against bigger and more hazardous vehicles. "Drive defensively" has come to mean "make sure yours is bigger than the other guy's" instead of "be careful". You need additional training and a special licence to operate a semi or a bus, but not for a Ford F150, despite the fact that in unskilled hands, they're a serious menace to other drivers.

Re:Who's driving whom?

[Doc Ruby]

Interesting. Too bad the CBC staff which wrote the article that everyone will read focused on the solar experiment, and not the steering experiment.

What people?

[siskbc]

You got FP!

Re:It's sad --need standards?

[Kevin108]

He was killed by a minivan, not some big lifted truck. You're way off topic. Minivans share bumper height with most cars.