Irresponsible??

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: DBMaster
If you want to kill yourself in a car, drive into a bridge abutment, or something. Pretty darn lame to take someone else with you.

You and hattaresguy are right. Far more of these are suicides than is ever actually reported to the public as such. I recall a particularly nasty one in BC a number of years ago.

 

[DBMaster]

When I was in high school (around 1981), a guy did drive his car into a bridge column supporting railroad tracks. I recall the photo as he hit the thing at 70 mph. Seems like a class act when compared to someone, drunk or sober, who hits another head-on going the wrong way on a highway. I don't know about you folks, but I have NEVER been that drunk - and I do like my spirits.

It really does happen around here several times a week. And, those are just the incidents I hear about on news radio. There could be others that do not result in crashes that don't rate a mention.

 

[Jarlaxle]

Originally Posted By: threeputtpar
What all of the DOTs should be doing is installing those tire puncture things on all of the off ramps so if someone tries to go up an off ramp it blows out all 4 tires.

Then the driver will sue the state for the cost of replacement tires.


Or he'll lose control at 80MPH, do a triple-gainer, and wipe out a family...or go head-on with a propane tanker and wipe out a few dozen people in the explosion.

 

[Astro14]

While towing a trailer behind my 1977 Olds 98 on I-55 near Jackson, MS in 1987, I came up over a rise and was face to face with a Ford pickup going the wrong way on the highway, his lights were off. It was near dusk. Smoothly and quickly I moved Oldsmobile and trailer onto the shoulder to avoid the head on collision.

I had little warning, was hampered by the trailer, and it took a split second for my brain to accept the impossible: wrong way driver. But I managed to miss him. I consider myself lucky, and credit the fact that I was paying attention, and was blessed with the reaction time of a 24 year old Navy jet pilot.

The lesson from this crash, and my own experience is this: you can't relax and lose focus on what you're doing while driving. Close attention and quick reaction saved me that day. Not all crashes are avoidable, but being alert and prepared to react sure improve your odds of living.