Thread: Bull bars – passenger vs pedestrian safety

Originally Posted by Bigbjorn

Hitting a 500 to 1000 kilogram bullock with a passenger vehicle will seriously stuff your day ( and your car) bull bar or no.

IF you are dopey enough to hit a cow at speed of course you are going to do damage But with a Good bullbar fitted it will minimise that damage and give you a chance of surviving the impact and your car as well.
Without a bar fitted your car won't survive and the possibility of you and your passengers getting injured or killed is Much higher..

Why is it that most of the detractors of bullbar are city folk But country folk who actually drive in areas prone to animal strikes swear by them?
Sure you have NO need of a bullbar if you are never going to go out of the city, However country driving is a completely different kettle of fish.

Originally Posted by trout1105

IF you are dopey enough to hit a cow at speed of course you are going to do damage But with a Good bullbar fitted it will minimise that damage and give you a chance of surviving the impact and your car as well.
Without a bar fitted your car won't survive and the possibility of you and your passengers getting injured or killed is Much higher..

This one hit a cow,and i don't think a bar would have helped.Apologies if some may have seen this pic before.

My take is bars are a necessity when travelling in rural areas.

They have saved our vehicles from animal damage quite a few times,except once when a wombat decided to head but the passengers door

I have a foot in several camps on this topic; I live in a rural area, commute into a busy suburban setting, travel regularly in outback areas and work as an intensive-care paramedic covering an area that extends from a busy urban area into surrounding rural and mountain areas. Just yesterday I took care of a pedestrian who had walked out in front of a car and been struck; not a moron, not an ear-plugged zombie or 'suicidal creature' but a very sweet eleven year old girl who didn't pay appropriate attention crossing the road. I shudder at the thought of this happening in my Defender with the bullbar up front, but there it hangs anyway as it is a multi-purpose vehicle.

Originally Posted by POD

I have a foot in several camps on this topic; I live in a rural area, commute into a busy suburban setting, travel regularly in outback areas and work as an intensive-care paramedic covering an area that extends from a busy urban area into surrounding rural and mountain areas. Just yesterday I took care of a pedestrian who had walked out in front of a car and been struck; not a moron, not an ear-plugged zombie or 'suicidal creature' but a very sweet eleven year old girl who didn't pay appropriate attention crossing the road. I shudder at the thought of this happening in my Defender with the bullbar up front, but there it hangs anyway as it is a multi-purpose vehicle.

Hopefully she will heal well, never nice to see a young person hurt - but they arent the common demographic, the others are - theres even been tv adverts about not stepping into traffic drunk!

Take into account the profile of a 4wd and even without a bullbar the older, squarer fronts will still cut up a person if they are inattentive.

Most accidents are caused by inattention and down right incompetence on some ones part. But of course as we've all seen it's easier and more lucractive to blame speed and bits such as bull bars than the real reason.
I witnessed a little girl get knocked over years ago and it was lucky the driver had me as a witness as he was being accused of speeding. Funnily I was behind him and saw the girl run between parked cars and had actually braked earlier than him because of that.
Thankfully she was only bruised and it all ended well.
Bull bar not fitted but if one had been why should the blame be on that and him rather than a bit of juvenile lack of thought?
AlanH.

kind of irrelevant.

If I plow into you at 60-80KPH with between 4 and 7T of landrover Bull bar or no you're going to have a bad day.

infact...

the bull bar will probably protect you from all the crumpling sheet metal, glass from lenses, fiberlglass shards from the bonnet and the cheese gratering of the radiator and its bracings.

We have to contend with deer, emu, pig and a multitude of other wildlife as well as a plague of roos here in the south east.
Kangaroos are a real problem here. I read a piece in The South East Times about a Mt Gambier man who worked in Penola. He hits about five roos every night.
The wildlife are even a problem for cyclists.
Cyclist has a near miss with deer as numbers hit record levels in SA - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

I find a roo bar is a necessity.