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Old 02-19-2003, 10:08 AM   #1
MagiK
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SUV drivers put pedals to mettle
Motion: Though criticized, big vehicles ferry workers to hospital jobs.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Scott Shane
Sun Staff
Originally published February 18, 2003

A half-dozen shiny big SUVs were lined up outside St. Joseph Medical Center yesterday morning, their volunteer drivers proving to the world that they are nothing like the arrogant, self-centered, fuel-squandering ignoramuses of stereotype.

"You hear it on the news - all about the gas-guzzling hogs driving SUVs," said Jeff Hegberg, climbing back into his $40,000, 7,200-pound, black 2002 Chevrolet Suburban. "Well, on a day like this, what would the hospitals do without us?"

Then he was off on another run, transporting critical hospital workers: three more drop-offs, two pickups, from Carney to Bel Air. Hospitals around the region relied on volunteer drivers such as Hegberg yesterday to keep operating in the aftermath of the worst snowstorm in 80 years. And most of the volunteers, in turn, relied on their sport utility vehicles to roar down side streets drifted with 3 feet of powder or bust through walls of crusty snow left by plows.

Even as they have become the engine of Detroit profits and the darling of American drivers, sport utility vehicles have attracted outspoken enemies. Since the Sept. 11 attacks and talk of war in Iraq, the vehicles have been widely pilloried as symbols of the United States' dependence on imported oil. New television ads conceived by columnist Arianna Huffington even suggest that SUV drivers are unwitting allies of al-Qaida.

Keith Bradsher's book, High and Mighty: SUVs - The World's Most Dangerous Vehicles and How They Got That Way, attacked not only the SUVs but their drivers. Bradsher wrote that the automakers' market research shows SUV buyers to be "insecure and vain. ... Above all, they are apt to be self-centered and self-absorbed, with little interest in their neighbors and communities."

Well, don't try to tell that to the folks who turned out Sunday and yesterday to get critical workers to their hospital jobs. While some owners admitted yesterday that Maryland offers few opportunities to take full advantage of their bulked-up vehicles' capabilities, the snowstorm blizzard was unquestionably one.

In some cases the drivers were on staff. Dr. Alan L. Jones, chief of trauma orthopedics at the University of Maryland Medical Center, loaded his Ford Expedition with colleagues early yesterday, collecting Dr. Brian J. Browne, head of emergency medicine, in Green Spring Valley; a critical-care nurse in Cockeysville; and an anesthesiologist in Stoneleigh.

It "was so heartwarming that all of a sudden you got this very positive response: 'Don't worry, we're coming to get you.' ... I had no way to get here in any other fashion," Browne said from the emergency room.

But most emergency chauffeurs are volunteers. Hegberg, 36, who designs electronic highway signs for a living, had driven his Ford Explorer for St. Joseph during two past snowstorms.

On Sunday afternoon, Hegberg stopped by the hospital, taking along his Parkville neighbor Jack Fowler, 49, as navigator. They drove till after 10 p.m., stopping under bridges to scrape ice off windshield wipers, picking up and dropping off workers from downtown Baltimore to Stewartstown, Pa., and points between. Yesterday they were back for more.

"I actually enjoy doing it," Hegberg said. "It's the only way I can get out and play in the snow and not get in trouble with my wife." His first challenge was to find a route out of his Parkville neighborhood that avoided numerous stuck cars.

But some formidable vehicles also had trouble in the latest weather. Many drivers were disappointed to discover that the heavy snow defeated even their mammoth SUVs. Hegberg and Fowler saw a Baltimore County snowplow truck stuck sidewise across Philadelphia Road Sunday evening.

For liability reasons, volunteers are not allowed to drive patients to the hospital; that job was left to ambulances. But volunteers must bring staffers who are designated essential - and that's a lot more than nurses and physicians.

At St. Joseph, with 250 beds full and dozens of workers sleeping at the hospital between shifts, food service workers are critical. Pharmacists have to be there to deliver life-saving drugs. By law, a licensed building engineer must be on hand to maintain heat and power.

Then there are extraordinary situations. Charles DeBaufre used his Dodge pickup to collect the wife of a 94-year-old man who was near death at St. Joseph so that she could be with him in his last minutes. "She'd asked them to try to keep him alive. It feels pretty good to be able to do that," DeBaufre said.

Mark Lundin, a database analyst for Comcast, made his first pickup for St. Joseph at 5:30 a.m. in Oliver Beach in Eastern Baltimore County and burned a tank of gasoline ferrying workers for most of the day in his red Nissan Xterra. He found two service stations out of gas because trucks couldn't deliver.

As a single guy, he said, he has been asked many times why he drives a 16 miles-per-gallon SUV. He has to think for a while about the answer. "Somewhat for a feeling of authority and control on the road," he said. "To go places I'm not supposed to go. To not get stuck, whatever the weather does."

Actually, in yesterday's snowdrifts, Lundin did get stuck - twice. He dug the Xterra out. Then he drove on to collect the next hospital worker who was depending on him.

Sun staff writer Erika Niedowski contributed to this article.
 
Old 02-19-2003, 10:22 AM   #2
realbinky
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I've never said SUVs have NO place. This is exactly a great use for them. But for 80-90% of the time, that one guy in the Xterra is driving only himself around (he's single) and getting 16MPG on roads that are clear and dry. I have a pickup that gets 12-15MPG, I hardly drive it. I have a minivan that gets aroud 18-19, I only take that when I take the whole family, and never far. I commute in my 30MPG car. In the summer, I commute on my 32MPG motorcycle. I have those gas guzzlers, but use them sparingly.
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Old 02-19-2003, 10:45 AM   #3
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I made no moral or judgemental comments, I just posted the headline. [img]smile.gif[/img]
 
Old 02-19-2003, 10:52 AM   #4
antryg
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Wow! Six whole SUV drivers voluntered. I wonder how many SUV's there are in the city where the report comes from. Don't get me wrong. I applaud those people who went out of their way and volunteered for something most people wouldn't even think about. Six out of ten or thirty thousand SUV's isn't exactly a whole lot. It doesn't "prove" that SUV owners are altruistic or civic minded. We also aren't told how many jeep drivers or 4-wheel drive Subaru drivers (I'm sure that Paul Hogan was there.) also volunteered. Living in Dallas, the Holy Land of the SUV, I know that there are many caring, civic minded people who drive SUV's (like my parents). I also know that there are maany total jerks. Drivers lost in their own world who think that traffic laws don't apply to them and that they are entitled to 4 spaces when they park.
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Old 02-19-2003, 11:04 AM   #5
MagiK
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Originally posted by antryg:
Wow! Six whole SUV drivers voluntered. I wonder how many SUV's there are in the city where the report comes from. Don't get me wrong. I applaud those people who went out of their way and volunteered for something most people wouldn't even think about. Six out of ten or thirty thousand SUV's isn't exactly a whole lot. It doesn't "prove" that SUV owners are altruistic or civic minded. We also aren't told how many jeep drivers or 4-wheel drive Subaru drivers (I'm sure that Paul Hogan was there.) also volunteered. Living in Dallas, the Holy Land of the SUV, I know that there are many caring, civic minded people who drive SUV's (like my parents). I also know that there are maany total jerks. Drivers lost in their own world who think that traffic laws don't apply to them and that they are entitled to 4 spaces when they park.
Antryg, I live here...the writer picked 6 guys to write about. I can tell you that there were hundreds if not thousands of SUV owners helping out just in the DC area. Just in the quarter mile from my house to the Safeway, there were about a dozen SUV's with snow blades on the front, clearing parking lots (these aren't state or government owned), animal shelters, and homes. There were a few people towing stranded cars out of snow drifts and this is just one neighborhood. The evening news was filled with footage of people with SUV's helping those with mini-cars, there were also hundreds of people helping stranded drivers of dinky cars who had to get out... Anyway [img]smile.gif[/img] I for one will always have at least 1 SUV in the family for such emergencies, they aren't all that uncommon in the North East USA, wether Blizzards or Hurricanes or what have you.

As for people being jerks and taking 4 parking spaces...I know several Mercedes and Lexus drivers who do just that....you don't need an SUV to be an asshole.
 
Old 02-19-2003, 11:10 AM   #6
Thoran
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There's not many SUV's on the road that could deal with 3' of snow for more than a few feet (better be short drifts), and my wife's 26mpg Outback can go to more places and in more varying conditions that our 10mpg Suburban (towing vehicle) can, the one exception being snow that's deep enough to hit the bottom of the OB but not deep enough to get to the bottom of the Suburban. So they're right, if there's exactly the right amount of snow on the ground where an inch or two of ground clearance makes the difference than the SUV is advantageous. Hell my Legacy GT Limited is more capable on slippery, snowy or rough roads than an SUV... Posi rear axle, electronic center diff, high tech design compared to 30 year old suspension and drivetrain designs in many overpriced SUV's. Every time I see the leaf spring rear on a Durango I laugh my a$$ off.
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Old 02-19-2003, 11:14 AM   #7
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Thoran, our Jeep Grand Cherokee plowed through 30-40 yards of 3 foot snow just fine, the only time I had a problem at all was the 6 foot barrier at the end of the drive that the plows had pushed up...but even that gave way......I made it all the way to the cleared road, then hung it up just in front of the garage opening because I slowed down. It is all about knowing how to use the vehicle [img]smile.gif[/img] It took 15 minutes to dig the snow from under the chassis.
 
Old 02-19-2003, 11:15 AM   #8
Rokenn
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Oh my! I'm so sorry I ever questioned the fact the SUVs have a real use! Please accept my most humble apology for my ignorance. SUV owners are the most kind and altruestic people there are!
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Old 02-19-2003, 11:20 AM   #9
antryg
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Magik, since both my parents have SUV's and I love them (parents, the cars and I are just friends ) I don't have any inherent hatred/dislike of SUV's. I'm also glad to hear you tell that there are more than just the six drivers cited in the story. You've opened my eyes and now I understand that it is just the drug using SUV drivers that are in league with terrorists. (not a dig at you Magikman, I just hate those commercials)
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Old 02-19-2003, 12:01 PM   #10
MagiK
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Quote:
Originally posted by Rokenn:
Oh my! I'm so sorry I ever questioned the fact the SUVs have a real use! Please accept my most humble apology for my ignorance. SUV owners are the most kind and altruestic people there are!
No need to be an ass, you could just accept the post for what it was.
 
 


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