Keep it safe, kids...

[TC535i]

Just found out an aquaintance from high school just died last Sunday, on a road we used to drive all the time back in the day (Highway 84 for you Bay Area guys, Woodside Road from Skyline Blvd. out to the coast, right near La Honda). Came around a corner, found a pickup making a u-turn blocking both lanes.

Everybody tells themselves that they're always in full control of their cars, but when the unexpected happens... nothing you can do, sometimes.

RIP Benji Cantwell, MVHS Class of '96, Christian Rock singer and son of a pastor (Mike Cantwell)

Just something to keep it all in perspective...

[Brian C.]

We can be as safe and as aware and as defensive as we possibly can be, and the "other" guy will be the one to blind side us. Or as Keiffer told about the dump truck that didn't stop the other day........sometimes you just never know. We should all remember that to watch out for the "other guy" should be as important as anything else we do when we get behind the wheel.

Sorry Tim.

Brian C.

[Mr. BILL]

So sorry you lost your friend.

[George M]

The very devices that give us such freedom and exhilaration are the very same that destroy so many lives. As someone who has worked in, and been dedicated to, automotive safety for the past twenty years, few understand the magnitude of the issue. The number of U.S. traffic fatalies hit a 13-year high in 2003, with a total of 43,220 deaths on U.S. highways and "40% of those were alcohol-related". And this is in a time when cars and trucks have never been safer....numbers based on National Highway Traffic Safety Administration figures. NHTSA figures indicated an increase of 405 highway deaths overall in 2003 compared to 2002 and the most since 1990 when 44,509 people were killed. The 40% figure for alcohol-related deaths is unchanged since 2002, but the actual number of deaths was 18 less than in 2002.

If you know someone that drinks and drives, take this on as a personal plight to help society and seek help in the form of an ignition device that keeps that person from driving if intoxicated...may just save a life and a family from personal tradegy.

[DueyT]

Tim, sorry about your loss. You, Brian and George are absolutely right...the thing you can't control are other people. You can only control your actions and reactions to other people. Some words of wisdom that apply to cars as much as they do to the helos I fly and motorcycle I used to ride:

1) Always have an out...somewhere to go if someone else does something dumb near you!

2) If you don't have an "out", do something about it and see Rule 1) again.

3) Assume that folks on the road with you are trying to kill you...either deliberately or through sheer incompetence.

4) Don't be the person in Rule 3) to someone else.


Do that and you have pretty goods odds at living happily to a ripe old age...

Cheers,
Duey

[Hector]

When I'm driving with my 2 kids in the back seat (considering they think they are old enough to call shotgun, which they may be...) I go through a driving-habit metamorphosis. I tell my kids to buckle up just before I start to drive, I don't drive aggressively at all, am very patient with stupid drivers, eyes pop out in the back of my head for extra safety/prevention and no matter how much my kids drive each other into the back seat; I try not to turn around to tell them stop doing that or else... The bottom line, my kids are just too precious to me but there is still the inevitable that can catch you off guard. At least I have taken steps to prevent a fatal error from my part. The other part--how insignificantly tiny it may be--could just be the roll of the dice.

[George M]

Duey's words are right on....leave yourself an out....is key. And Duey as a pilot you know the difference between pilots that are careful and those that tempt fate...JFK Jr comes to mind. The biggest mistake most drivers make that leads to personal injury and death statistically is not leaving enough distance for reaction time relative to road speed. This is partly due to ignorance but most know bettter but can't bring themselves to leave enough distance because of all the people that will cut in front at highway speeds.

[andyman32]

For loving BMWs as much as I do, I usually drive pretty sedately... driving too aggressively on public roads isn't worth 1) risking unnecessary damage to my car, 2) causing myself unnecessary harm, and 3) 1. and 2. with regard to other anonymous drivers. Driving fast is fun, but it's almost always unacceptable in the normal traffic conditions here. There are a lot of pedestrians, and they're hard to see at night. And one of my BIGGEST pet pieves is tailgaters. If you're closer to my bumper, you have less time to stop... and if ONE person brakes slightly for whatever reason, every tailgater in turn has to brake harder and harder (subtract reaction time for each one)... that is, put simply, how traffic jams start.

Simple solution: leave a few car lengths in front of you.

Is that really so bad?

Well... sorry about your friend TC535. A student at NCSU here in Raleigh also died in a car wreck over the weekend - same situation. At night, going too fast in a Camaro with 4 teenagers in the car and clipped a car turning into the road around a tight bend. It is a tragedy, but so many of these tragedies can be avoided by simply being rational and responsible...

[Brian C.]

...to my days as a UPS driver. Back about (ahem-mumble-mumble) years ago I got a job as a Holiday relief driver for UPS. I'd never driven a stick, much less a big truck with a stick, so I learned real quickly from a friend and his '74 VW Super Beetle. Then when I went for the UPS driving test I can still remember the guy telling me..."Leave yourself an out...don't get too close!" He gave me a great mental image that I still follow to this day. He would say, "At a stop, suppose the guy in front of you never ever moves again. Make sure you leave yourself an out without having to go in reverse." And he'd talk about not letting "the other guy kill YOU!"

It's not that difficult to be as safe as possible if you just try a little, isn't it?

Brian C.
;)
BTW....I lasted 4 months with that truck....too much like real work!

[billb]

...

It's not that difficult to be as safe as possible if you just try a little, isn't it?

Brian C.
;)


...large group, about 40 cyclists, riding double file. We're taking up one lane. I hear, very faintly, the sound of a BIG truck behind us. It turned out to be a UPS truck, and here's what amazed me; he WAITED until a dotted yellow line, turned on his blinker, passed us at a reasonable speed, gave us PLENTY of room, used his blinker to come back in the lane after clearing the first rider by 50+ feet, then waved out the window at us!

Then about 4 miles later, we all about got taken out by a soccer mom in a Volvo who was undoubtedly late to Bible study, as she went whipping by us, in a curve, with a solid yellow line, her right wheels about 3 feet in our lane, at 70 mph, yakking on a cellphone with two kids in the back, with a F250 approaching ahead. Made everyone dive for the shoulder, lucky no one got a flat. And this is on a DESERTED road near a nuke plant! Good thing I wasn't wearing a Polar...my hr would've been off the charts!

Be careful out there folks, ALWAYS leave an out. And keep an eye out for us roadies!

:p