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The Forsyth County News
Opinion
This is a page of opinions - ours, yours and others.
Signed columns and cartoons are the opinions of the
writers and artists and may not reflect our views.
What do YQU think?
Should Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax funds be
allocated to make infrastructure improvements in estab
lished developments in which the developer elected not to
finance the work at the time of development, requiring
sometimes-costly retrofitting? Should the improvements
in roads, water lines and other types of infrastructure be
financed by ad valorem taxpayers, i.e., from the general
fund budget of the county? Or should special tax districts
be created to allow the residents of the areas where the
improvements are needed to finance their own projects
over a period of time?
•
Mail your response to:
THE FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS
P.O. Box 210
Cumming, GA 30130
Uncle Sam targeting sport utility vehicles, hitting freedom
The ozone hole. Global warm
ing. Second-hand smoke. Fatty
foods. Smog. Air bags. Day
after day after day, the list of
national worries grows longer.
Today, we can add the sport util
ity vehicle (SUV) to the roll call
of infamy.
Haven’t heard the terrible truth
about Explorers, Cherokees,
Suburbans and Land Cruisers?
Aren’t yet scared stupid by the
übiquitous, seldom-off-road off
road vehicles favored by suburban
soccer moms and dads coast-to
coast? Don’t worry, if Uncle Sam
has his way, you will be.
On June 2, the National
Highway Transportation Safety
Administration (NHTSA)
released the findings of an SUV
safety study. Interestingly, the
study didn’t Ibok into the safety
of riding in an SUV but riding in
a car hit by an SUV -a neat sort
of anti-logic that comes naturally
to government researchers.
Recent crash tests, the report
said, show that people riding in
cars involved in side-impact
crashes with SUVs suffer more
extensive injuries than those rid
ing in cars struck similarly by
other cars. Surprise, surprise, sur
prise.
“Our crash test results reflect
: what is happening in the real
: world,” said an NHTSA
spokesman. And what sort of real
world is it? A real world of exact
; ly four phony crashes. That’s
; right, the feds got themselves a
• Ford Explorer, a Chevy Lumina
• sedan, a Dodge Caravan minivan,
r and a Chevy S-10 pickup, revved
; up each vehicle to 30 miles per
On Your Payroll
CITY COUNCIL
• Mayor, H. Fond Gravitt, 212 Kelly Mill Road,
Cumming, Ga. 30040.887-2352
: Mayor Pro-Tern, Lewis Ledbetter, 205 Mountain
Brook Drive, Cumming, Ga. 30040.887-3019
Ralph Perry, 1420 Pilgrim Road, Cumming, Ga.
30040.887-
Quincy Hollon, 103 Hickory Ridge Drive, Cumming,
Ga. 30040. 887-5279
: Rupert Sexton, 705 Pine Lake Drive, Cumming, Ga.
30040.887-
• John Pugh, 10813th St., Cumming, Ga. 30040.
887-3342
COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
Chairman Bill Jenkins, 430 Oakleaf Trail, Suwanee,
Ga. 30174.887-0935; office, (770) 886-2809
Vice-Chairman Lamar Suddeth, 3145 Pleasant
■ Grave Road, Cumming, Ga. 30040.886-0738;
;■ office, (770) 886-2807
: WIHIam “Andy" Anderson, 9740 Misty Cove Lane,
Gainesville, Ga. 30506.889-1829;
. office, (770) 886-2806
-John Kiemr, 4403 Pine Tree Close, Cumming, Ga.
< 30040.889-3255; office, (770) 886-2810
JuNan Bowen, 5035 Pilgrim Point Road, Cumming,
Ga. 30041 887-0784; office, (770) 886-2802
£ BOARD OF EDUCATION
> Chairman Bon Benson, 1265 Dahlonega Highway,
< Cumming, Ga. 30040. 889-9892.
JVkte-Chairman Paul Kroeger, 9810 Kings Road,
> Gainesville, Ga. 30508.889-9971
‘Don Hendricks, 5985 Polo Drive, Cumming, Ga.
£ 30040.889-2909.
\ Sherry Sagemilter, 1460 Squire Lane, Cumming,
Ga. 30040. 887-8388.
<Eddie Tbytor, 4195 Morningside Drive, Cumming,
S Ga. 30040.887-4405.
NATIONAL REPRESENTATIVES
-US. Senator Paul CoverdeU
• 200 Russel Senate Office Bidding, Washington,
hour, and methodically slammed
each into the driver’s-side doors
of four sacrificial Honda Accords.
“Real world?” Not really.
From these four crashes, the
NHTSA’s taxpayer-funded sleuths
determined that the Explorer has a
78 percent chance of “causing a
serious chest injury” to a Honda
driving crash dummy. The
Lumina, by contrast, has a 57 per
cent chance of causing such an
injury.
By the government’s own
account, then, the Explorer is 21
percentage points more dangerous
than the Lumina. Which makes
one wonder what the study’s mar
gin of error was, considering its
small size and the fact that those
conducting it have a strong vested
interest in finding danger on the
highways. Ten percent? Forty
percent? One-hundred percent?
Who knows?
Researchers reinforced the
(weak) case of the lab results with
a handful of statistics generated
from historical crash data. In
actual crashes, officials calculated
that, when SUVs strike passenger
cars in the side, there are 30 driver
deaths in the cars for every death
in the SUVs.
You might assume - as the lab
coats have - that the reported 30
to 1 death disparity is caused sole
ly by the SUVs inflicting unfair
damage on smaller vehicles, but
you’d be wrong. It seems likely,
rather, that dying in an SUV that
smashes into the side of a car is
infrequent 1) because of the basic
geometry involved, and 2)
because SUVs are safer vehicles.
The government itself admits
D.C. 20510
Atlanta: 100 Colony Square, Suite 300,1175
Peachtree St.,
Atlanta, Ga. 30361
Telephone: (202) 224-3643;Atianta (404) 347-
2202
Fax: Washington, (202) 228-3875; Atlanta, (404)
347-2243
U.S. Senator Max Cleland
75 Spring Street, Suite 1700
Atlanta, Ga. 30303
Telephone: 331-4811
U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal, 9th District
1406 Longworth House Office Building,
Washington, D.C. 20515
Gainesville: P.O. Box 1015, Gainesville, Ga.
30503
Telephone: (202) 225-5211;Gainesville, 535-2592
Fax: (202) 225-5211; Gainesville, 535-2765
STATE REPRESENTATIVES
Senator Billy Ray, 48th District
State Capitol, Suite 327, Legislative Office
Building, Atlanta, Ga. 30334; (fax) (404) 656-6581
Telephone: (404) 656-0048 (office) or (770) 822-
0900
e-mail: bray@tegis.state.ga.us
Senator Casey Cagle, 49th District
325-6 Legislative Office Building, Atlanta, Ga.
30334; (tax) (404) 657-1424 Telephone: (404)
656-6578 .
Reo. Mike Evans. 28th District
18 Capitol Square, Legislative Office Building,
Room 604, Atlanta, Ga. 30334 Telephone: (404)
656-0265
e-mail: mevans@tegis.state.ga.us
if- r* oetk
nep. iMroin nmiuivvf, utsinvi
Legislative Office Building, Suite 412. Atlanta, Ga.
x 945 ’ 1579
e«man. Koreeoiovewiegis.smie.ga.us
-XT? -/ 7/ Vote Keeps
Violence f(_ Q Prayer Out
O
that SUVs “are heavier, ride high
er and are stiffer than cars.”
Which might lead average, every
day, rational people to figure that
the problem - assuming there is
one - is not too many SUVs, but
too few.
The government, of course,
takes a different view. Last week,
the head of the NHTSA, Dr.
Ricardo Martinez, said that 2,000
lives could be saved if the current
mix of cars and light trucks on the
road were replaced by an all-car
lineup.
(Over what period of time, the
AP did not report.)
That is how bureaucrats think.
How many lives, they wonder,
could be “saved” if we did some
thing utterly preposterous like
issuing everyone in America a
matte gray Honda Accord?
Power-mad government func
tionaries may dream of nation
wide auto homogenization, but it
just isn’t going to happen. Not
this year. Instead, the government
will go on - like some deranged
Energizer Bunny - sounding the
alarm about the supposed danger
of SUVs.
Fear sells: the media will contin
ue to parrot uncritically the gov
ernment line.
At some point, expect the media
to add some “independent
research” to the mix.
(Remember when Dateline
NBC’s resident pyromaniac,
Stone Phillips, admitted using an
“incendiary device” to blow up a
pickup truck with a punctured gas
tank? Surely, he’ll cover the
“SUV crisis” with a perfectly
straight face.)
All of which is guaranteed to
grab the attention of America’s
blood-sucking trial lawyers. In
fact, the wrongful death suits have
already started. ABC News
reported last week about a couple
suing Range Rover over injuries
suffered in a collision with one of
the company’s SUVs. Can a
class-action lawsuit against all
SUV manufacturers be far
behind?
For their part, automakers seem
only too eager to cooperate.
Detroit, however, would do better
to fight the looming PR battle. If
Uncle Sam’s SUV crusade reach
es critical mass with the public, it
will be too late. And anyone
tempted to cut a deal should take
T? ZCF 7TT H
rorsy th County News
V Tour Paper" Siwe/iW •/
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NEWCOMER’S GUIDE
jB Bl ® s
It’s time for the annual publication of our
Newcomer’s Guide tabloid, the comprehensive
directory to the area
4- Shopping Conveniences + Parks/Recrealtonal 78
♦ Specialty Stores Facilities I
♦ Real Estate Offices ♦ Child Care Centers
xDJ rn/ >• ♦
of Worship
% “ rine '3 ♦ Restaurants s
4 County Services * Fitness Centgrs
AND MUCH MORE:
Several thousand copies of this special
will tic flfcftrihiifrti thwMioh
the Chamber of Commeroe, local
I hanksw ppaiestateotnees that vour business
advertising representative at
770-887-3126
Mil Aa °
FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS Friday, Junt 12, ISM
government has dealt with Big
Tobacco.
(One central irony is that, for
decades now, Washington has
forced automakers to build ever
smaller, ever-lighter vehicles to
meet arbitrary fuel efficiency
standards. Now the same folks
mandating the production of
smaller cars are complaining
about the cars’ safety. Typical.)
In the end, we will have only
ourselves to blame. The public’s
eagerness to accept slipshod,
pseudo-scientific government
research as absolute truth is symp
tomatic of a society that has
become absurdly - and danger
ously- risk-averse.
After all, freedom always
Luther
Boggs Jr.
people do -from starting a busi
ness to driving on vacation -. is
risky. The real danger we face js
not out-of-control SUVs, but qu(-
of-control government. Freedom
itself is at risk. , z >
Luther M. Boggs Jr. is an arsa
speech writer and a regular con
tributing columnist to the Forsyth
County News. His column appears
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