Car wrecks and trauma

[Rusty Edge]

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.

Across the border in more densely populated Jersey, the crankier-but-wiser drivers had already learned that lesson the hard way- NOBODY SAVES TIME WHEN YOU CRUNCH FENDERS . So they would yield position and let you merge, even though it may be accompanied by horns, shaking fists, or other gestures, and rapidly working jaws.

Actually, on the whole the Wisconsin drivers are relatively courteous about yielding, signaling, and so forth. It just makes the exceptions so much more obvious and annoying.

[ColdWizard]

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.

Used to see that a lot around here. Seems less frequent now but I don't do highway rush anymore. I used to do it myself, actually. Now I don't have to worry about it, I don't leave enough space and the person that wants to slot in can just go 3 cars farther up into the 15-car length gap the cell phone driver leaves.

[Rusty Edge]

New story-
After church today we're on our way to the usual Easter lunch at Olive Garden ( traditional family dinner is an evening meal on this holiday ), not streets we normally travel, but it's a flat straight blvd. with 2 lanes each way.

 We're in no hurry, driving the speed limit or a little over, and it's starting to rain. I'm driving my Pacifica with 3 passengers. I'm in the right lane, and am slowly closing in on the car in the left lane. There's about one car length left between us.

I heard it coming before I saw it, so it must have been moving at less than Mach I. This time my reaction wasn't to throw it into neutral and brace for impact, or steer for the curb. My instininct said HARD BREAK and trust the aggressive driver. So I did. He somehow flashed by between me and the guy in the left lane. My wife estimated his speed at 80. No lights, even though it's raining and required by law.

Well, we caught up at the next light. Black Altima with bright chrome, no rear plate.  I glanced over. Black guy with short hair driving and a blonde passenger.
Light changes, they're off like a shot again, leaving us with dropped jaws.

They go a block, approaching two, when they abruptly halt in the street, throw it in reverse and accelerate as quick as can be, passing us again going the wrong way in reverse at top speed, and leaving us pretty much in shock. Frankly we've never seen the like of this kind of driving except in the movies, or Bondurant's driving school.  http://bondurant.com/ He had it under control. Apparently he missed his turn, or he was trying to evade somebody, because my niece said he turned west from the high speed reverse.  We pulled over and called the police.

Anyway, while I was shocked at this driving behavior, I wasn't afraid. So, I guess I'm over my trauma from being rear-ended.

We suspect car thievery, but maybe he was late for church, or had to pee.

 The city has taken a hands off approach to car theft, both with enforcement and prosecution. #1) insurance pays. #2) police pursuits endanger people. #3) jails and prisons are crowded.
The trouble is that this crime has only grown, and escalated to car jacking, too. I think the situation justifies a bait car program.

The question on my mind is, "how many of the car thieves have played Grand Theft Auto, and what did they think of it?"

[Buster's Uncle]

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.

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...

[Dio]

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.

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...

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.

[Buster's Uncle]

Yeah.

I don't know where/how to look up the sort of thing they teach drunk drivers in those classes, but I don't think it's a First Amendment issue by any stretch of the imagination.

[Rusty Edge]

Good point about the driving ethics.

Speaking of my own driving, a lot of times I'm lost in thought, or too preoccupied watching for deer/children/texting drivers/speed traps/pot holes/drunks, etc. ahead of me that I forget to check my mirrors often enough.

[Buster's Uncle]

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...

[Dio]

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 have seen more people speed through lights right before it turns red than I care to admit while  I walk across intersections.

[Buster's Uncle]

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.

[Dio]

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.

[Buster's Uncle]

Yes.  If you don't feel that little jerk as the vehicle comes to a dead stop, you're illegal.

[Rusty Edge]

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...

Well, yes, maybe if they played the safer and saves gas angle more so than the ethical. But as you say that wasn't really what the instruction was about. It was how to operate, the rules, and awareness. Plus films about what happens when that goes wrong.

This has me thinking... I misjudged traffic lights twice so far this year. Both times I had somebody accelerating behind me. That wasn't a consideration in either case, but it left me feeling guilty for breaking the law, and glad for not getting rear-ended again.

[Buster's Uncle]

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.

[Dio]

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."