On Sat, 15 Jul 2000, spitfires-digest wrote:
> From: "Nolan Penney" <npenney@mde.state.md.us>
> Subject: Re: Re: Safety inspection?
>
> >>> Laura Gharazeddine <Laura.G@141.com> 07/14 3:18 PM >>>
>
> >People who are nervous drivers (For whatever reason) tend to make more
>mistakes and _cause_ accidents.
>
> A major complaint and problem with SUV drivers is their confidence in
> their invulnerability. This has also been noted with Volvo drivers.
> Those that have no fear drive most dangerously. Those that well
> understand their danger drive the best. That's why old fart bikers
> don't ride like kids on crotch rockets.
Hee...As a biker, I heartily concur with your last observation
Nolan. Nothing strikes fear in the heart like being followed by the
dreaded ovloV. Mini-vans are a close second, and SUVs are really much the
same as ovloVs.
Fearful, often poor drivers with a realistic lack of confidence in their
driving abilities choose to "purchase" confidence rather then obtain it by
developing their driving skills. Of course, the latter requires taking
personal responsibility for your own safety, rather than insisting that
others provide a "safe" environment for you - liability rests with you,
and not with somebody else. This kind of thinking is generally
antithetical to the litigious conventional wisdom of our time.
There are the same folks (sometimes safety-Nazis, sometimes simply
clueless) - "mothers against ___?___ (pick your favorite media-hyped
chicken-little crisis du jur)" types - who perpetually react to
convertible and motorcycle ownership with "how can you drive that???? it's
sooo dangerous...." In their view, it is the responsibility of the other
folks out there to provide for (guarantee) their safety, and not their own
common sense and skill. If they lose a leg, they feel it's because of the
unsafe way the sheet metal folded, not because they failed to avoid the
car (improperly) in their lane.
In my view, it's my job to watch out for and avoid the jerkoff or airhead
yacking on a cell-phone while driving a SUV|ovloV|mini-van to keep from
winding up with mangled body parts - I'm not going to rely on the
side-impact qualities (or lack thereof) of my vehicles to protect me from
this.
It is the responsibility of every mature adult to accept that there are
drunks, other criminally negligent types, and engineering which performs
badly in an accident out there on the road. Once you accept that, and
still head out there, you have to take some responsibility for what
happens - you have to get past the adolescent obsession that life is
unfair. I frankly am MUCH happier relying on myself, and not the
individual in the other vehicle to look out for my safety. I firmly
believe that I haven't had a motorcycle accident because I drive with the
conviction that they ARE all out to get me, and I take the responsibility
for avoiding them.
I guess, at the very bottom line, don't tell me my motorcycle/convertible
is too dangerous a vehicle to drive because you as the other driver are
too dangerous to be on the road with.
Ok, is that enough rant?
In the interest of full-discosure: I have been the proud owner of several
ovloVs, including a station wagon. In addition, I own a crotch rocket and
hardly consider myself an Olde Pharte (tm), although I have been riding
for 16 years, and have not yet had my bad accident. Since I'm 32 and past
the general male adolescent insanity phase (yes, there are periodic
relapses, hence no olde pharte), I do not consider myself to be a squid,
and very rarely find myself doing squidly things. Moreover, I do believe
that the Ralph Nader approach to cars has been a real boon to the
american consumer on balance - cars are much safer today than they were
forty years ago. Nevertheless, Ralph and the Trial Lawyers Assn. will
never be an acceptable substitute for my own good common sense - and in
the attempt to be one, they will severely limit our driving choices.
Obtriumph/spitfire - although much of this discussion spills over from
motorcycling, the issues are almost identical to those I remember bouncing
around as child in the '70s regarding convertibles. Although convertibles
seem to be making a comeback, I would suggest that we need to be
ever-vigilant against those who would protect us from ourselves.
Personally, I like being out of the womb.
Regards,
Scott
==================================================================
Scott Ruffner
Computer Systems Senior Engineer Computer Science Department
ruffner@cs.virginia.edu University of Virginia
(804)982-2219 http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~jpr9c
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