> You are definitely safer hitting the fearless ton of meat that is moose with a SUV.

Any data on this? Bigger==safer doesn't always hold with these things. Lots of other car design features play a role there, e.g. a smaller car with a strong roof will likely beat a SUV with a weak roof structure.

(and while lots has happened with safety technology, the classic counter point is that if you have a chance to avoid the crash you're way more likely to roll an SUV while attempting to do so)

You sit higher up, so if you hit a large animal, like a moose, you don't risk it coming through the windshield. Having anywhere from 300-700kg coming through your windshield is going to hurt you. But that assumes you hit it.

But like you said, you also run the risk of flipping the car. It would be interesting to see some actual data on this. It's the sort of thing that has been repeated so much that it's easy to make bad assumptions.

Anecdotally, I've almost hit a moose two times. Both times I just completely froze up and slammed the breaks. They jumped out of nowhere, the only reason I didn't hit any of them was just pure luck and timing, and had nothing to do with my ability to react or steer away.

> a smaller car with a strong roof will likely beat a SUV with a weak roof structure.

The latter circumstance feels extremely unlikely considering SUVs are generally engineered to support the higher likelihood of more weight ending up on the roof of the car in the event of a roll-over. I'd be surprised if SUVs had weaker structural reinforcement than equivalent-classed sedans.

But I could be very, very wrong here and wouldn't be surprised if I am.

Good point. on the other hand I don't know how a front impact on the roof line compares to the loads in a roll (but I guess a roll at speed also has a strong horizontal force on the roof). What I remember from studies I saw in the past is that features like sunroofs make some difference. But the "we as lay people don't necessarily know", and intuition going wrong on other scenarios, was why I asked if there is a good source on that.

AFAIK what you want is for the body of the animal not to crash through the passenger compartment.

Taller cars are better in this regard.

Where I live, not a ton of moose, though generally if the area is known for roadkill of large animals, you should try driving slower and maybe checking your headlights to make sure they are adjusted. Safer driving beats driving a huge car for the purpose of not having to safely drive.

Even from the shotgun seat I saw several absolutely suicidal deer who were invisible till the very last moment.

"Area" may mean 50x50 km of mostly wooded and sparsely inhibited territory. It is unrealistic to expect the locals to drive 40 kph all the time there.

I'm a very safe driver. When I go through the woods at night, I drive 40 or even 30kph. I've been part of a wild boar crash (southern german wild boars can get hefty), so I want to avoid future incidents.

It's not unrealistic to expect locals to drive safely. Either drive safely or hand in your drivers license, what's even the point of having one then?