Well... I've had a hard day. Got rear ended while sitting at a stop light on a long straight 50 mph road. We were about the 4th car in line at the light in the center lane. Didn't see him coming. Didn't hear brakes. Knocked us into the car ahead and terrorized some children in it. Lucky for them we were there to absorb the brunt of the impact. The offending driver had no insurance. We suspect texting.Have I ever talked online about the incident of 10 August 1996, roughly 10:55pm? I thought I was dead.
I think I'm going to drink some rum or brandy, take a long hot shower, and maybe relax my aching neck and back.
Get right, even minor scrapes can mess things up. You see a doctor?
I think this has enough legs on it to split into a new thread. Clearly, everybody's got stories, and we're talking about some pretty primal trauma. I know I'd like to talk some more about it...
Any objections?
Do you at least get some meat or jerky out of the deal?Around here if its edible the trooper will write up a tag and you can take it home. I got 90 pounds of good venison from one I hit. I was going downhill at about 55 when the thing just stepped right out there. Totalled the car: folded the hood like a playing card, laid the radiator back on the engine block and split the transaxle wide open. I was fine; more mad than anything.
I imagine this thread remains the incorrect location to make deer in the headlight jokes. . .Do you at least get some meat or jerky out of the deal?Around here if its edible the trooper will write up a tag and you can take it home. I got 90 pounds of good venison from one I hit. I was going downhill at about 55 when the thing just stepped right out there. Totalled the car: folded the hood like a playing card, laid the radiator back on the engine block and split the transaxle wide open. I was fine; more mad than anything.
In Eastern PA around the turn of the century, using a signal was tipping your hand, and others would race you for that open slot. You know, they were afraid of losing time because somebody might gain a position ahead of them or something.
It's appalling beyond words, isn't it, that anyone over the age of eighteen doesn't comprehend that there's a social contract in the very dangerous enterprise of piloting north of a ton of metal at high velocities where you should try to be no one else doing the same's problem.The concept of prevention rarely enters the public conscious because it requires extensive planning to implent on a large. The content of the preventive measure might cause some people to think that the class forces a certain ethical and moral viewpoint upon the "minor." The whole seperation of major religious and social ethics in government stems from the establishment clause of the United States Constitution. The clause prohibits the excessive entanglement of government and religion through the application of a Lemon test. The origin of many people's ethical viewpoints comes from a combination of experience and enviroment. The enviroment of a person includes religious upbringing and the events that follow the religion.
You know, I don't recall a single word said about practical driving ethics in high school driver's ed. I've heard that a lot of that gets taught in the driving classes judges sentence drunks and speeders to take - but I'd say it was a profound mistake to leave that off for only the problem cases who got caught. Regular people going about their otherwise legal lives are out there changings three lanes at once -and a million other reckless things- and endangering everyone else on the road every day. -Some preemptive instruction to the kids might help a little...
I just know that more than once, I've been talking about the wisdom of slowing down before stoplights to try to hit the intersection rolling, or how speeding doesn't even pay off much except on long drives, and someone accused me of having taken one of those drunk driving classes.I have seen more people speed through lights right before it turns red than I care to admit while I walk across intersections.
No - I'm miserly and think cars are dangerous; worked those things out for myself - but why they didn't tell me in Driver's Ed when I was 15, I don't know. It just seems like if you tell a roomful of kids "this doesn't get you there much sooner, but it DOES make it A LOT more dangerous for you and everyone on the road" a few will actually listen; more will remember a few years later. The level of anti-social driving habits might go down a little. I don't see a downside.
If "this is immoral" didn't reach me back then, "this is the SMART play" should have...
You realize I was talking about slowing down to give the red light time to change, right? Most people power right up to the light, slam on the brakes, and have to accelerate from a dead stop when it turns green - slow down and let it turn before you get there, and you can blow the door off the impatient people starting from a dead stop.Ha ha ha ha ha! Some people in California ignore the red lights and stop signs. Have you ever heard of a California stop? A California stop (a.k.a rolling stop) basically means that a vehicle stops minimally at stop signs and then proceeds to speed up immediately. The real rule involves coming into a complete stop before you follow the standard rules for stop signs.
I just know that more than once, I've been talking about the wisdom of slowing down before stoplights to try to hit the intersection rolling, or how speeding doesn't even pay off much except on long drives, and someone accused me of having taken one of those drunk driving classes.
No - I'm miserly and think cars are dangerous; worked those things out for myself - but why they didn't tell me in Driver's Ed when I was 15, I don't know. It just seems like if you tell a roomful of kids "this doesn't get you there much sooner, but it DOES make it A LOT more dangerous for you and everyone on the road" a few will actually listen; more will remember a few years later. The level of anti-social driving habits might go down a little. I don't see a downside.
If "this is immoral" didn't reach me back then, "this is the SMART play" should have...
I dunno - no downside to trying to plant an ethical POV into young minds to help influence the driving style decisions they make; especially as they age and get more patient/prudent.It might cause the teenagers to rebel against the oppressive attitudes of "cranky adults."