In a message dated 96-05-08 14:30:05 EDT, hazelton@mizar.usc.edu (John W.
Hazelton) writes:
>
>> I've only had one accident on a road. My ratty '77 300D
>> slid into a pristine '83 380SL one day in the rain... it was
>> completely unavoidable in a two-ton car riding on a slicked
>> road coming to a stoplight.
>
> Actually, based on your description, it sounds as though the
> accident *was* avoidable. Driving safely involves allowing
> an adequate amount of room between you and the car ahead of
> you to allow a safe stop. Taking into account the weather
> conditions, the mass of the car, its braking requirements, and
> other conditions, it is incumbent upon every driver to give
> himself room to stop without hitting the car ahead of him.
>
> Perhaps there were other circumstance you haven't related (e.g.,
> the other driver cut in front of you then slammed on his brakes,
> without allowing you time to create a proper buffer zone
> between cars).
>
>> Cops came to write up accident but didn't give me a ticket because
>> they could see I had been driving UNDER (!) the limit and the prick
>> I hit admitted the same.
>
> You were fortunate. However, just because the cops didn't cite
> doesn't mean the accident was unavoidable.
>
> I don't mean this as a flame, but I had a similar accident at about
> the same age, and I engaged in the same sort of rationalization
> about it. I realized a few months later that I was just fooling
> myself, and that I should have allowed more room between my car and
> the car I hit.
>
>--John Hazelton
> Los Angeles, CA, USA
>
>
This reminds me of my first accident. I was driving on a state highway,
speed limit was 55 MPH. I had my license just shy of 2 months, and I was the
only one in the car so I wasn't trying to show off. There was a straight
section about 3/4 mile long with no traffic in front of me. I was driving
55. At the end of the straight was a long hill. There was nothing on the
other side of the hill, but it dropped off steeply. There were no driveways,
no roads, nothing. Well I topped the hill, and there was a car maybe 75 from
the top, stopped in the middle of the road. Well, I had managed to scrub
some speed off, but I still hit him. It only broke one of his tail lamps. I
didn't get cited, but the old man told the cop he was trying to make a right
turn. The cop told the old man that there was no place to turn where he was,
but there was a 1/3 mile down the road. I learned a very important lesson
that day, no matter what the speed limit says, and no matter how well I know
the road, never drive blind into or over anything without first scrubbing
some speed off. If I would have slowed to 45 MPH, I could have stopped in
time. I did have my seatbelt on though. I always wear it ('cept if I'm just
driving the car to the backyard, but with the unintended accel. that the 78
MGB had, maybe I should to be safe).
But there are alot of variables in driving. We don't need to increase the
age of getting and set an upper limit to give up driving (geez! Look at Paul
Newman, he's past 70!). What we DO NEED is better education! Any monkey can
keep it between the ditches!
To steal from MG - Safety, Fast!
Be safe, NOT stupid!
Ron Nottingham
Dalton, Ga
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706-277-5011
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