Some of these are quite graphic. Watch at your own discretion.
Thanks Gene
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Crash Boom Bang – Auto Accident Compilation+18-115 comments to Crash Boom Bang – Auto Accident CompilationADVERTISEMENTS |
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I’m here today because I drive slowly. There is another driver out there who is alive because I’m a slow driver.
And seat belts.
Really. Seat belts. You have no idea until you use one how great they really really really are.
99% of the time, a safe driver is in an accident because some other idiot hit them, and they were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Driving quickly or slowly doesn’t effect that – the odds are equal either way. So long as you are driving safely and paying attention, you are exactly as safe going 80 as you are going 50 on the highway.
I’ve been driving for a living for just over a decade, and i’ve noticed people seem to have misunderstood exactly what ‘safe’ driving is. They seem to think that to be driving safely, you must have your hands at 10 and 2, you must not be using your cellphone (but somehow a hands-free device makes that okay), you must be driving slowly, you must be driving slowly, preferably in the center lane, etc. These are all misleading, and sometimes outright wrong.
For example, hands at 10 and 2 (or more recently, 9 and 3) is recommended for racing because then you have even control over the steering wheel in both directions and can make extremely precise, controlled turns for hitting exactly on the best line through the corner. For changing lanes on the highway… it’s unnecessary. Using your cellphone can be dangerous, but not because your hands aren’t on the wheel, so hands-free devices are actually just as dangerous as using a cellphone. Driving slowly doesn’t significantly impact safety, unless you’re in a neighborhood or something where a kid may come running out of nowhere. On the highway, driving slower than everybody else is actually MORE dangerous than simply going the same speed.
What DOES matter is paying attention. You can be driving with your knee, eating a sandwich, and talking on your cellphone all at the same time, but if you’re focusing 90% of your mental processes on watching the cars in front and around you (notice I said carS. Watching the one single car in front of you isn’t good enough – watch several cars ahead to see whats coming before it gets to you), and you’re paying attention, primed to step on the brakes or turn at a moment’s notice, you are more safe than most of the drivers on the road, despite multitasking and steering with your knee.
Then there’s tailgating. Good god there’s so much tailgating, I don’t understand it. 9 out of 10 drivers I see, and i’m not exaggerating, are driving 60, 70, even 80 mph at exactly the same distance from the car in front of them that they would do at 30 mph. You’re supposed to have 2 or 3 SECONDS of travel time between you and the car in front of you, not a few carlenghths, because the distance changes as you drive faster or slower.
If you’re going 15 mph in a school zone, you can be less than one car length from the guy in front of you. But if you’re going 75, 80 on the highway, you need to have at LEAST 4 car lengths in between you and the car in front of you, and twice that if the guy behind you doesn’t know jack. My rule is roughly half a car length for every 10 mph, and increasing it if the guy behind or in front of you is tailgating.
One more thing – I said earlier driving slowly on the highway is more dangerous than matching everyone else’s speed. This is for multiple reasons, and it’s much worse if you’re in the fast lane (if you’re going slower than everybody else, you should never be anywhere than the far right lane). For one thing, there’s simple roadrage. Most drivers are able to cope with nuisances pretty easily, but you can usually assume that for every ten cars that pass you, one of them is now angry because of you. Now, he passed you, so you’re not in any direct danger from him (usually), but an angry driver is much more dangerous than a calm one, and it may be your fault he got into an accident 10 minutes later and killed the guy he hit, or something.
There are also some people who will try to “punish” you for driving slow, if you’re in the fast lane. They may pass you and slam on the brakes, cut far too close when pulling in front of you, or simply tailgate you at less than a car length. All of these put you at severe risk of accident, and while it’s partially the roadrage driver’s fault for being stupid and driving like that, it’s also your fault for driving poorly.
More importantly, though (again, particularly if you’re in the fast lane), is you could easily be rear-ended by someone not paying attention going the same speed as everybody else. It happens daily and I’ve personally watched it happen three times: Someone’s driving 50-60 mph in the left lane, nearly everybody else is going 70 or 75, with many going 80, and somebody comes driving up in the left lane, going 75 with everybody else, and hits the slow driver full force. One of the times I saw this happen, the car in front (the slow driver) got spun out and the car rolled into a tree (I think they lived, with injuries).
I hope I’ve made my point: Driving slow does not mean you’re driving safe. If you’re anywhere other than a residential area, you need to forget about driving slow, keep up with those in front of you, and instead, Pay Attention.
(And yes, seatbelts are extremely important as well, but that wasn’t the point I was trying to make.)
TL:DR
Driving slow doesn’t mean you’re driving safe, and is in fact, sometimes MORE dangerous. What matters is paying attention to the road and the cars around you. Always watch as many cars ahead as you can see, not just the car in front of you.
While I agree 100% with your excellent post, I want to add that slowing down also means “do not drive faster than is legal or smart under the circumstances”. Driving faster means you have less control over your car when you need it (for example when you hit a pothole or need to swerve). And when accidents do happen, the amount of energy released (and thus the damage to your body and your car) are much (almost 50%) more at 85 mph than at 70 mph.
Mike you are so right on this. When my daughter was little I had a conversation with a tow truck driver that really drove this point home. He shared that his worst nightmare was seen a child’s blanket or toy in the road after an accident and how wonderful it was to look inside the car and see a child belted in thight upside down some times laughing…
Don’t drive with out seat belts ever.
Amen Mike and Jester. About 12 yrs ago I was t-boned by a car that crossed the yellow line to go around a city bus that was stopped at a red light on the left side of the intersection, and hit me, as I passed thru the green light, between my driver’s side door and front wheel. I was buckled in and had to be cut out of the car by the Jaws of Life, and suffered only a sore back, neck, and shoulders for a few weeks. The other driver did not have his seat belt on, and was found in his rear passenger seat. He had suffered a broken back, head trauma, and massive internal injuries, and died about a week later, never having regained consciousness. He had apparently been running a couple of minutes late for work. He was 22.
A few months later, my wife was in an almost identical t-bone accident, and was hit on the driver’s side by an old man who mixed up the gas and brake pedals and accelerated thru a red light. She was shook up and sore, but after being cut out and taken to the hospital, she needed no medical treatment. The seat belt saved her from serious injury or worse. I was following her in my vehicle and saw the crash.
I won’t even start a car to pull it into the garage without buckling up.
I got T-Boned back in January, ’97, when I pulled into an intersection after stopping at a stop sign. A six-foot snowbank entirely obstructed my view of any cross-traffic, and since the roadway was completely icy, I could neither stop nor accellerate to get out of the way. I was hit directly on the driver’s side, and my seat was pushed a good three inches to the right off the frame. I can’t imagine how hurt I would have been if I wasn’t buckled in.
Fortunately, the other driver was buckled in as well, and was also unhurt.
That accident was entirely my fault, although weather and an obstructed view played a part. I was 18 at the time, and (like many of us) I was stupid and invincible at that age.
But that’s kind of my point. You can’t trust that just because you’re a good driver, anybody else is.
I was rear-ended last year (a few seconds after I had stopped, waiting for traffic to pass to make a left turn, with my left turn signal and brake lights on). The other driver claimed he was distracted because he was “reaching for a pen” when he hit me. WHO THE HELL NEEDS A PEN WHILE DRIVING???
Since most if not all of this vid and others on you tube are from Russia, I ask why are these people driving like this. I did read somewhere about why there are so many videos of this kind in Russia is was said that their insurance , courts and insurance scams are are so messed up that this is how people are protecting them selves.
I’m pretty sure everyone in russia is permanently in the teenage “I’m invincible” years.
I bet that vodka played a big part of many of these accidents.
I’m amazed there are so many cars with cameras to catch these incidents.
We were the first place in the world to make seat belt wearing compulsory (Victoria, Australia), with heavy fines for not wearing them.
There are also heavy fines for being over the legal alcohol (0.05) limit and drivers are routinely spot tested for alcohol or other drugs.
And you wouldn’t want to get caught texting or otherwise using a mobile (cell) phone whilst driving either.
Idiots, mostly. The majority were just going far too fast in bad weather. Most – not all – of the people accidents were caused by the person jay-walking.
I want one of those cameras! It’s easy to buy cameras for race cars here in the U.S., but not this kind of camera.
Not so hard…
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_2_8?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=dash+camera+for+cars&sprefix=dash+cam%2Caps%2C507
I really like the music in the background. Where can I find the recording?
What did we learn?
Don’t f*cking live in Europe or Russia!!!