Slam and Stats

There is nothing more frightening than observing a car slam into another vehicle in your peripheral, especially when your vehicle has no crumple zones or airbags to speak of. The vehicle I was riding was my ’03 Honda Superhawk and the crash occurred about four lanes away during Friday's rush hour traffic. The driver that caused the accident must have been preoccupied, but I couldn't imagine what would have caused this great of a distraction especially given the large amount of cars waiting to exit, nobody appeared to be cut off, and all vehicles in front of the errant driver were stopped. The offender slammed on the brakes and must have hit the vehicle in front at a speed between 10-12 miles per hour. It sounds minor but the force caused the vehicle being struck to plow into the vehicle in front of it. Boom! That’s three motorists whose days were ruined. In addition, the force could have even been severe enough to cause some minor neck injuries.

The accident wasn't as dramatic as the footage above, but you get the idea...

I’ve witnessed such an incident only once before in my life and the action occurred in the very next lane on the San Francisco Bay Bridge, the vehicle I occupied also offered little in occupant protection (a ’69 Karmann Ghia, my restoration project at the moment). That incident involved a family in a Camry that failed to react quickly enough as the vehicle in front of them slammed their brakes on. Airbags were only offered on ultra-luxury vehicles at the time and crumple zones and safety cages were an afterthought to most manufacturers unless you drove one of those aforementioned luxury cars or the hood emblem displayed Volvo. Is somebody trying to tell me something?

I blogged about driver distraction and its potential impact on driving and laws to eliminate them at least those of the communicative variety, but even that legislature may only spare a few lives. The fact is more vehicles are occupying basically the same amount of roads, consider these statistics: between 1982 and 2002 vehicle miles travelled increased by 79% while highway lane miles only increased a mere 3%; total population in 1982 was about 231 million, in 2002 that number grew to over 288 million (obviously the number of vehicles occupying the roads increased), the startling statistic was that in '88 there were about 47,000 fatalities involving motor vehicles, and in spite of the increased number of vehicles occupying the roads and the growing commutes, this number has hovered right between 40,000-43,0000 fatalities every year thereafter. Certainly laws have been altered, some for the better, others with little or no benefit, but the biggest impact are the efforts made by manufacturers along with legislation requiring safety devices such as airbags of all sorts, improved structural design, and improved restraint systems (especially for kids).

Future topic: Electronic stability control and and how it will make you a better driver.

DWD: 25, Miles: 1304 The Fit survived wife's last day of work at her old job. Her commute will now increase almost 20 miles/day.