I’m officially calling for a royal commission into tall utes.
They are dangerous, traffic causing, terrible for the environment, slow even at their stock fastest and are often unnecessary for any real task in a big city. Their size creates feeling in drivers that they can do whatever they want on the roads.
I live in Sydney and I have first hand understanding that utes have a place for tradies and jobs that require moving materials. However the culture and the newer non-work targeted utes do not have a feasible reason for existing in a city.
Tall utes limit visibility of surroundings. Children are the most vulnerable victims as they are small and are less likely to be seen over the top of a 1.5 meter tall dashboard. Smaller cars are also at risk, the area of impacts makes accidents involving the two types of cars more dangerous for the smaller cars.
I probably wouldn’t write this post if these vehicles were less common but the continued advertisement and acceptance of people driving these cars makes the issue very hard to ignore. It’s like every second car on the road is a Navarra, (non work) hilux, Amarok etc.
