Can Someone PLEASE Explain...
- Thread starter Opie Knievel
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Here's my take - I don't believe that everyone is an idiot, but it seems that they are the only people I seem to encounter on the road everyday (idiots).I think most of them are either ignorant, arrogant or both. When I see accidents that lead to death and mayhem I always wonder about who was driving like an idiot that led to it. Or who was driving a car that was unfit for the road or conditions. Like these morins that head out in the snow with illegal summer tires.
Here's my solution that is aimed at keeping me, and my family's main source of income (me), safe - assume that everyone else is going to run a stop sign, change lanes into me, jam on the brakes for no apparent reason, make a right turn from the left lane, and generally try to collect me in their accident - DRIVE DEFENSIVLEY and DO NOT engage in road rage. Locally, a year and a half ago, a retired cop shot both a man and his son that lead to the guy's son's death over a ridiculous bout of rage rage. The retired cop drove straight to the police barracks and turned himself in. Don't let it happen to you!!!!!!
I am chronically worried about this with my son and we discuss it at every possible instance. I even had him go take a defensive driving course with me (for a point reduction) and to let him see how he should be driving. I tell him constantly that I'll probably kill myself if he gets involved in an accident due to street racing, road rage, etc, because some moron thinks they can whip him from a 60 mph roll. His car is his pride and joy - don't let some idiot ruin it or his life because he has it. I've seen him be taunted at cruise ins by these idiots - this past summer I stepped in with one such moron and told him if he wanted to see whose car was faster then I'd run him - AT THE DRAGSTRIP - where racing is designed/supposed to take place.
I was young once also and did too many stupid things, but I strongly recommend the younger posters, or all posters here for that matter, listen to this. Your car is designed to get you from point A to B, or to have fun/enjoy as a hobby - don't let it become a lethal weapon and change your life negatively forever. If you let it come to this, all the fun is over.
I say all of this with my experience being : CDL A, tank, hazmat, doubles/triples endorsements. I can drive anything safely. I'm not the best driver in the country, but I can navigate any type of vehicle in any driving or road condition and have for the past 30 years. I've had too many close calls, but common sense, and perhaps a bit of luck, have kept me in one piece.
Here's my solution that is aimed at keeping me, and my family's main source of income (me), safe - assume that everyone else is going to run a stop sign, change lanes into me, jam on the brakes for no apparent reason, make a right turn from the left lane, and generally try to collect me in their accident - DRIVE DEFENSIVLEY and DO NOT engage in road rage. Locally, a year and a half ago, a retired cop shot both a man and his son that lead to the guy's son's death over a ridiculous bout of rage rage. The retired cop drove straight to the police barracks and turned himself in. Don't let it happen to you!!!!!!
I am chronically worried about this with my son and we discuss it at every possible instance. I even had him go take a defensive driving course with me (for a point reduction) and to let him see how he should be driving. I tell him constantly that I'll probably kill myself if he gets involved in an accident due to street racing, road rage, etc, because some moron thinks they can whip him from a 60 mph roll. His car is his pride and joy - don't let some idiot ruin it or his life because he has it. I've seen him be taunted at cruise ins by these idiots - this past summer I stepped in with one such moron and told him if he wanted to see whose car was faster then I'd run him - AT THE DRAGSTRIP - where racing is designed/supposed to take place.
I was young once also and did too many stupid things, but I strongly recommend the younger posters, or all posters here for that matter, listen to this. Your car is designed to get you from point A to B, or to have fun/enjoy as a hobby - don't let it become a lethal weapon and change your life negatively forever. If you let it come to this, all the fun is over.
I say all of this with my experience being : CDL A, tank, hazmat, doubles/triples endorsements. I can drive anything safely. I'm not the best driver in the country, but I can navigate any type of vehicle in any driving or road condition and have for the past 30 years. I've had too many close calls, but common sense, and perhaps a bit of luck, have kept me in one piece.
Are you sure you don't live in Melville, Saskatchewan? Pretty much the same here. The highway is worse, they follow so close, if you tap your brakes, they could kiss you as they plow into you. And either 80 mph or 50 mph, heaven forbid you drive the speed limit or slightly over it. We had a Bimmer SUV follow so close, my wife tapped the brakes, still followed, we even pulled over, I think they thought about waiting till we got going again! My wife had road rage, if they came up to the car, god help them. Speed up, slow down, it matters not. Why in the hell would anyone drive that way?
Most of the time you see it coming - don't engage and avoid what you can. I have pulled over and even gotten off the Xway and back on just to change my frame of mind. Nothing good comes from these situations.
I try to not let the idiots get to me but sometimes it's nearly impossible. What got me mad enough to post was something that happened yesterday. My fiance wanted to go to a neighboring city to do a little shopping so I rode with her in her car. ('03 Impala) We were driving along normally and came up on another car driving normally. (Some sort of Suzuki car) The other car was driving about 45mph or so until we got behind it. I'm not kidding you, they slowed down to 20mph for no reason. About 3/4 of a mile ahead there was a fork in the road and I told my fiance just ride behind them until we get to the fork. We were turning left and I figured the other car was going right. We get to the fork and the idiot in the car in front acted like he was taking the other road until the last second when he whipped in front of us to block us and then continued to drive 15-20mph and kept getting slower. The farther we went, the slower he went. I finally told my fiance to just floor it and pass him. The other lane was clear. The next part is what makes my blood boil. As soon as we started to pass him, he floors it to try to keep us from passing. WTF?!?!?!?!?!? We're not kids. Driving isn't a game. This is the stuff I'm talking about. People like that don't deserve to be on the road. As we passed him I saw who was driving and then I realized that I shouldn't be surprised by his moronic actions. It was a local guy who draws a check for some bullshit reason. He's plenty able to work so I'm guessing it's a mental check. In my opinion if you're not mentally able to work you shouldn't be allowed to drive. We passed him without any trouble and at first it looked like the guy was gonna try to chase us for who knows what reason. It wasn't long, maybe a little over a mile and he turns around and goes back the other way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Really? He had nothing better to do than to mess with people trying to actually get somewhere?????? WTF is wrong with people????
I am of the impression there are quite a few undocumented and illegal drivers on the road, foreign and domestic. I want to quantify this by saying my primary occupation for the previous nearly twenty years was on an ambulance in the second largest city in my state, now it is on a fire truck.
I have seen so many wrecks that were caused by inattentive driving, one way or another....can you imagine that cars have got continuously safer and we have had alcohol since before cars....yet the number of cell phone related accidents surpassed those of alcohol related ones?
There is a strange sense of entitlement, to owning a vehicle (on credit) to driving with no license or insurance (can't get those on credit). There is a whole cross section that do not care about the laws or enforcement because they have no identification, so they have nothing to loose.
Road rage is a big deal, I see it alot, insurance scams are too, in most other countries drivers (normal people) will have cameras on their vehicles to protect themselves from frivolous lawsuits...yet we don't here? Cut down on lawsuits, cost some lawyers some revenue and even affect insurance rates?
You guys think people don't know how to drive in normal vehicles you should witness it from an emergency response, how about a car that impedes your way to an emergency, several miles driving slow and stopping not letting us pass, all the way to his house...he got out with this look of pleasant success...until he realized we stopped at his residence (his child did not survive the incident) law enforcement was with us the whole way.
Or, someone plows into the back of your fire engine, totals the fire truck, totals her car, had to call another truck to extricte her as she smashed the compartment with the jaws in it...."I didn't see the truck" it's only 35 feet long, bright red, covered in strobes and lights and you wiped out a quarter mile of traffic cones and weaved through three stopped police cars to hit it.
I call it job security. Please move over, slow or yield to emergency vehicles responding or stopped, please.
I have seen so many wrecks that were caused by inattentive driving, one way or another....can you imagine that cars have got continuously safer and we have had alcohol since before cars....yet the number of cell phone related accidents surpassed those of alcohol related ones?
There is a strange sense of entitlement, to owning a vehicle (on credit) to driving with no license or insurance (can't get those on credit). There is a whole cross section that do not care about the laws or enforcement because they have no identification, so they have nothing to loose.
Road rage is a big deal, I see it alot, insurance scams are too, in most other countries drivers (normal people) will have cameras on their vehicles to protect themselves from frivolous lawsuits...yet we don't here? Cut down on lawsuits, cost some lawyers some revenue and even affect insurance rates?
You guys think people don't know how to drive in normal vehicles you should witness it from an emergency response, how about a car that impedes your way to an emergency, several miles driving slow and stopping not letting us pass, all the way to his house...he got out with this look of pleasant success...until he realized we stopped at his residence (his child did not survive the incident) law enforcement was with us the whole way.
Or, someone plows into the back of your fire engine, totals the fire truck, totals her car, had to call another truck to extricte her as she smashed the compartment with the jaws in it...."I didn't see the truck" it's only 35 feet long, bright red, covered in strobes and lights and you wiped out a quarter mile of traffic cones and weaved through three stopped police cars to hit it.
I call it job security. Please move over, slow or yield to emergency vehicles responding or stopped, please.
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Many good perspectives here. I see my share of poor driving, as I drive into, and out of the big city on a weekly basis. Fortunately, I'm on shiftwork, so I'm commuting during off peak hours. To me, I can see a number of what I believe to be reasons for bad driving. Many people don't pay attention (for whatever reason) to what is happening around them, and aren't planning where they need to be at a given point in their journey, so they end up stopping or changing lanes at the last second. I think many people don't allow themselves enough time to get where they're going without rushing. I know that many people have busy lives, but if you allow yourself even an extra 5 minutes to make your trip, then you can slow down and drive more safely.
My own pet peeve is people who drive high end cars. Usually for me, its the German cars (BMWs, Mercedes, & Audis, but I see it in other luxury brands as well). I think that some people who drive these cars think that their car will make up for poor driving habits, or it gives them the right to drive like idiots. I have learned to be particularly wary of people driving BMWs. From my own experience, many of those people are the worst.
As Nailhead said, slow down and drive safe.
My own pet peeve is people who drive high end cars. Usually for me, its the German cars (BMWs, Mercedes, & Audis, but I see it in other luxury brands as well). I think that some people who drive these cars think that their car will make up for poor driving habits, or it gives them the right to drive like idiots. I have learned to be particularly wary of people driving BMWs. From my own experience, many of those people are the worst.
As Nailhead said, slow down and drive safe.
This could go on endlessly- it's a national epidemic. Morons at the wheel. I drove a two ton Parcel Post truck for twenty years in New York City. Not a single accident. Why? Because I assume everyone else is is an ******* that wants to die. I am rarely disappointed. When I started driving in the 60's you could cruise around with a case of beer in the backseat and an ounce of weed in the glove box and no one noticed. But we never wiped out 10 people at a bus stop because we were more interested in finding our phone that fell down between the seats. I am all for the new idea of self driving cars (for the unwashed masses) . The insurance companies are the biggest backers of that. Imagine a fleet of cars that can't exceed the speed limit, blow stop signs, or tailgate you. As much as I hate the idea of a computer driving me around- humans have proved they are getting worse and worse at it. And that idea makes me want to keep my G-body forever!
I think in my opinion is that with the electronic gagets (phones, tablets, in car infotament systems) are helping drives keep their attention away from driving. These get an assist with the fact that almost all vehicles are automatics. Not shifting gives one a free hand. So what to do with it? Check social media, take that selfie, watch the latest show you follow, video chat, down load something, keep texting your friends. Then the attention is away from that emergency vehicle, school bus, person in the crosswalk, road cones & barrels, disabled vehicle, that thing that they are sitting in. Should go back to the stick shift & it might make them watch the road since you are part of the car not just in it. Hell, I can't use my phone while shifting unless I grow an extra arm. Just think, this reply doesn't cover the drunks, illegals (no license or incurance), "road stalkers", old drivers that lost their driving skills, road racers, 16 year olds, entitled drivers. They all take the joy of driving away.
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