Free Republic

A left-wing environmental activist group proposed deflating the tires of sports utility vehicles as a radical act of protest against climate change. Adbusters, an activist group that describes itself as a “collective of artists, designers, writers, musicians, poets, punks, philosophers and wild hearts has been smashing ads, fighting corruption and speaking truth to power,” and has been tied to the Occupy Wall Street protests in 2011, called for activists to deflate SUV tires in a Twitter thread on Wednesday. “So here’s what we do: Wedge gravel in the tire valves, leaflet the SUV to let them know the tires are...

Drivers of bigger vehicles such as pickup trucks and SUVs are more likely to hit pedestrians while making turns than drivers of cars, according to a new study. The research released Thursday by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety points to the increasing popularity of larger vehicles as a possible factor in rising pedestrian deaths on U.S. roads. The authors also questioned whether wider pillars holding up roofs of the larger vehicles make it harder for drivers to spot people walking near the corners of vehicles. “The link between these vehicle types and certain common pedestrian crashes points to another...

He may want to stick to spaceships for now. William Shatner was involved in a car accident on Ventura Boulevard in Studio City, Calif., Tuesday afternoon, as evidenced from photographs taken from the scene. The “Star Trek” star, 90, was driving alone in his black Mercedes-Benz SUV when he got into an accident with an unidentified woman driving a silver Acura sedan. It’s unclear how the incident happened, or who caused it, but it appears both cars were damaged in the wreck.

"Here's what we know so far on the sequence of events that led to the Waukesha tragedy caused by [an] SUV," the paper tweeted. "A quarter-mile from the rotary building, at 4:39 p.m., an officer told a dispatcher a maroon Ford Escape ‘just blew by [him]’ at White Rock and Hartwell avenues, the intersection where barricades blocking traffic to the parade were removed just a minute before, according to police audio and time codes provided by Broadcastify," the Post wrote in the report published Tuesday. "A few moments later, the SUV rammed through the parade participants, killing five and injuring...

The Dunn County Sheriff's Office has identified the four people found dead in an abandoned black SUV in the town of Sheridan. Tuesday, the sheriff's office reported the four people have been identified as 30-year-old Nitosha Lee Flug-Presley, of Stillwater; 26-year-old Matthew Isiah Pettus, of St. Paul; 35-year-old Loyace Foreman III, of St. Paul; and 30-year-old Jasmine Christine Sturm, of St. Paul. The four were found after officials received a 911 call reporting a death at 2:18 p.m. on Sunday. According to the update Tuesday, the sheriff's office reported autopsies from the Ramsey County medical examiner revealed the four died...

Like other modern cars and trucks, the Genesis GV80 that Woods was driving when he crashed was equipped with an electronic data recorder... Vehicles in the Genesis line — Hyundai’s luxury brand — for example, also feature artificial intelligence software that keeps a watchful eye, sending alerts if it detects the driver is distracted or closes his or her eyes while driving. ...Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department executed a search warrant this week to retrieve the data contained on the SUV’s computers. Information on how fast Woods was going, whether he ever hit the brakes, and other clues could be...

At a Miami Beach car wash in December 2018, a car thief named Jose Antonio Reyes Bermudez pushed an employee and climbed into a customer’s empty Mercedes SUV. As the SUV accelerated forward, the customer ran toward the vehicle — pistol already drawn. The customer, Stephen Allen Lott, aimed his pistol and fired two shots as the SUV tried to drive away from the lot. Mortally wounded, Reyes Bermudez — who did not have a gun or a knife — lost control of the stolen SUV. It plowed into the side of a building across the street, destroying an electrical...

Watch commander, bystander rescued man A watch commander and a bystander teamed up to rescue a DUI driver that was pinned under his steering wheel as his SUV caught on fire, according to the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office. Deputies said Ari Waffle, 28, was driving a silver GMC SUV on Old Kings Road North around 1 a.m. Saturday when he crashed into a street sweeper owned by the city of Palm Coast. When FCSO Watch Commander Jason Neat arrived on scene, he saw a man and woman trying to pull Waffle out of the burning vehicle but he was trapped...

You should probably get used to seeing headlines like this. With the expansion of the tactic of mobs of protesters and rioters blocking streets and highways, leading to attacks on vehicles and their occupants, more and more motorists seem to be deciding to risk being taken in by the police rather than being beaten or otherwise assaulted. That means that some of them, when pinned in by an angry mob, are choosing to hit the gas and let fortune sort out the rest. That’s what happened in New York City last night. A group had moved to block off...

A largely peaceful protest in Detroit against systemic racism and police brutality turned violent on Sunday night as a police SUV plowed through a group of protesters, striking multiple people and sending a couple of demonstrators who had climbed on the hood flying from the vehicle. Police accelerated the vehicle multiple times as dozens of protesters surrounded it, according to videos of the incident posted to social media. After each acceleration, protesters could be heard shrieking in shock, pleading for the driver to stop hitting the gas while people were in front of the vehicle and being thrown from its...

DETROIT – A violent confrontation happened Sunday night on Detroit’s southwest side. Video from the scene captured a Detroit police SUV driving through a crowd, knocking several people to the ground. The video shows the police officer revving the engine, trying to get a protester off the vehicle before pressing on the gas and accelerating through the crowd. One protester said the officer’s actions validate the protests and said the Detroit police “feels like they could do anything with impunity.” “That’s why we march,” he said. “The police feel like their badge gives them the authority to do harm and...

General Motors Co will revive the Hummer name to sell a new family of electric pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles and will tout the return with a Super Bowl ad featuring NBA star Lebron James, two people briefed on the matter said on Friday. The vehicles will be sold under the GMC nameplate. Reuters reported in October that GM planned to build a new family of premium electric pickup trucks at its Detroit-Hamtramck plant beginning in late 2021 and was considering reviving the Hummer name, citing several people familiar with the plans.

FRANKFURT - Soaring demand for SUVs drove record sales for premium carmakers including BMW and Mercedes last year, leaving the industry on collision course with government efforts to tackle global warming despite big investments in electric vehicles. BMW said on Friday deliveries by its main luxury brand rose 2% to a record 2,168,516 vehicles last year, thanks to a 21% jump in sales of its “X” branded sport-utility vehicles (SUV) which now make up 44% of the BMW brand’s global sales. At Mercedes-Benz, the world’s best selling premium car brand, every third luxury car sold last year was an SUV....

The "immense" rise in sales of high-emission sports utility vehicles means they now outsell electric cars in the UK by 37 to one, research has found. As a result, overall exhaust emissions from new cars have been increasing, not declining, for the past three years, says the UK Energy Research Centre. SUV sales are jeopardising the UK transport sector's ability to meet EU emissions targets, it said. Prof Jillian Anable of the UKERC said this made "a mockery" of UK policy. "Effectively, we have been sleepwalking into the issue," she said. "The decarbonisation of the passenger car market can no...

They are an enormous cause of emissions, and deadly to pedestrians? Is it time for automakers to stop selling them or cities to stop allowing them on their streets? Over the last decade, global SUV ownership has doubled. In that time, the vehicles contributed more to the increase in global CO2 emissions than airlines, trucks, or heavy industry, according to an analysis by the International Energy Agency. Even if we add nearly 150 million electric cars to the road by 2040, if SUV ownership grows at its current rate, they’ll offset that entire emissions reduction. And while they’re spewing emissions,...

California is not on track to meet its greenhouse gas emission goals, in part because Californians just aren’t ready to give up their trucks and SUVs. A new study by nonprofit group Next 10 and Beacon Economics found Californians in late 2018 owned more gas-guzzling pickups, mini-vans and SUVs than they did five years ago. Those vehicles made up 57.3 percent of new vehicle registrations in 2018, compared to 39.3 percent in 2013. ... “Assuming the same rate of reduction from 2016 to 2017, California will reach its 2030 and 2050 goals in 2061 and 2157, respectively — representing a...

Patent paperwork details four different portals On the heels of reportage about a Ford dealer meeting where a Bronco prototype took the stage, Motor Trend discovered a Ford patent application for a removable door system. Called "Door with Convertible Scaffolding" (pictured), the patent appears to have got administrative recognition in the U.S. last year, but was filed in Germany and published in January. The drawings show a full door fitted with impact beams that can be removed from the door casing. A person could take off the full doors and reinstall the impact beams — similar to the tube doors...

Mercedes-Benz USA's CEO confirmed the Mercedes-Maybach GLS to Automotive News. It will be built at the same Vance, Alabama, plant as the regular GLS, making it the most expensive passenger vehicle built in the States.

BMW announced this week that, according to newly released data from the U.S. Department of Commerce, it again leads America in automotive exports by sales value. This is thanks to the plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina, BMW’s biggest global plant and the producer of most of its X crossovers and SUVs. BMW said the plant—which makes all the X3, X4, X5, X6, X7 models and their M and hybrid versions sold worldwide—exported 234,689 cars abroad in 2018, a value of more than $8.4 billion. BMW said 356,749 SUVs were made there in total.

"He's a bit banged up, but it's nothing overly serious," a representative with the mayor's office said, according to the Bay Area's FOX 2. The mayor was believed to be suffering a broken collarbone, a broken chest bone and injuries to his neck and back, the Mercury News of San Jose reported, citing Liccardo's best friend, Carl Guardino. The accident happened when the driver of the 2002 SUV was making a right turn, said Guardino, who is president and CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. “This is the fear of every cyclist,” said Guardino, who often bikes with the...