Mike Moxley, sales manager at Rickenbaugh Cadillac (whose personal vehicle is an Escalade 4X4) says his dealership takes a similar approach. "Our delivery procedure, which includes a road test and a lot of information about driving habits and characteristics of the vehicle, can take as long as three hours. But it's worth it, because we want our customers to be safe. We don't want them to be like some of those drivers I see up on I-70 by Lookout Mountain, where I live, who feel that they're invincible."
People interested in SUVs don't seem to have been scared off by Ford's admissions about sport utilities. Shawn Moling, sales manager for John Elway Ford West, says not a single customer has brought up this announcement to him, and John Elway Ford Downtown's Ron Green concurs. In fact, he says he hadn't even heard about the statements until being contacted for this article -- and the details of them don't shake his confidence in the vehicles one iota.
ALRERT DUMMY COPY!!
Anthony Camera
In a typical accident, a car is no match for an SUV.
Related Content
More About
"I drive an Expedition -- I've driven one since 1998 -- and I feel safer in it than I would sitting down low," he says. "I can see farther, and I feel like I've got a lot of strength around me. I feel very comfortable putting my family in that automobile, and a lot of other people do, too. That's why we're selling so many of them."
To date, this sales boom hasn't undermined improving traffic-safety trends; in April, U.S. Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater announced that the 1999 automotive fatality rates were the lowest on record. The state patrol's Steve Smee thinks that by exercising some prudence, SUV drivers can help keep it that way.
"SUVs are basically trucks," Smee says. "And if the people who drive them would realize that, maybe they'd be a little more cautious -- and have a little more respect for innocent bystanders."
In the end, what mattered most was that Janet Majikas had been a teacher. She'd dedicated her life to this pursuit (as had her husband), and her love of the profession proved to be contagious: One of her sons was already a teacher at the time of her death, with the other still in school but following the same path. So rather than pushing for Amy Johnson to receive time in jail for her role in the accident, the Majikas clan argued for community service -- and this wish was granted.
"She has to talk to students who are about to get their driver's licenses at my mom's school in Levittown [near Fallsington], and my brother's school in Levittown, and the school my mom graduated from, which is in Levittown, too," Majikas says. "We figured that if we touched one person to get them to learn about driver's safety, it would be a lot better than having her sit in jail."
Johnson's willingness to fulfill this sentence means a lot to Majikas. "She's a good person," she says. "She just made a really bad choice, and she understands that; she really does. I forgive her." She pauses. "I never knew what forgiveness meant until I forgave that woman."
Majikas concedes that she's still having a hard time coming to terms with what happened, especially with the first Mother's Day since the accident having just passed and the anniversary of Janet's death weeks away. That's why she's pouring her energy into her work at, of all places, an insurance agency. One of the agency's specialties: auto policies.
Her message to SUV drivers is a simple one. "Sitting up that high can give you a false sense of confidence. So know your vehicle. Know your limits. Don't tailgate. And drive safely. Please."
