Deep thoughts #2 - driving
I've not thought ABOUT driving in years, but lately several things have combined to bring my thoughts back to the surface. Of course, I've been teaching pallasathene82 to drive a stick, and she's making good progress. Nate is now aware of speed limits, which is good and bad, because in the Prius he can see the speedometer display, and when it doesn't match the signs, he says 'Slow down!'. Erk! I drove my mom to the ER 2 weeks ago, and I drove very much faster than usual and ran several red lights and did not put us in any danger.
And finally, there was a young man at the Buckston fighter practice with a broken wrist who had run his work truck in to a tree. He said that he had had 5 accidents now in four years, to which I said that he needed to change his driving habits, because he was going to kill himself soon. He replied that not all of the accidents were his fault. I agree that sometimes there are accidents that are very hard to avoid (like that chunk of concrete falling in the Big Dig tunnel in Boston), but for the most part, pretty much all accidents can be avoided. This is a controversial statement, and I know it, but here's why I say that. There are three main kinds of accidents and one rare kind:
- Equipment failure
- You run in to someone/something
- Someone else runs in to you
- (This is the rare kind) - Something unavoidable, like the concrete in Boston.
- Equipment failure, barring some freak metalic fault, will almost always be you-the-driver's fault. (When I say 'you', I mean 'you the driver'.) You must be responsible for your vehicle, and know at least at a minimum that it is in good working order and the breaks are sound and that the engine will not shoot itself and the transmission will not leap out of its housing and wrap itself around your neck. If you can't do these things, at the very least you must pay someone to do them for you (i.e. a repair shop). But a car is a big, complicated, dangerous thing, and all too often we forget that. You need to know what the repair people are telling you, including when they're pulling one over on you. Know at a minimum when (and why) to change your oil, how to check your tire pressure and tread wear, and when your brakes are fading or failing. Most people are in-tune with their car enough to know when something doesn't feel right, but that's not the case for everyone. Easy enough fix - get to know your car better. Be able to name the majority of the parts under the hood and under the car, and understand what most of them do, at least generally. Also understand what your mechanic is telling you.
- You run in to someone/something - this is pretty easy to figure out - don't run in to it. Except of course there are hundreds of possible mitigating factors - the whatever-it-was walked/ran/fell/drove in front of you, you lost control of the car for various reasons, or you lost control of yourself for various reasons. People are so complacent about driving that the warning labels for various medications say not to drive or use heavy machinery. A car IS heavy machinery, even though it is very easy to forget that. There are three easy (or very hard, depending on your point of view) steps to keep from ever hitting anything again:
- Slow down to the driving conditions of the area as well as the speed limit and your own physical capacity and ability (and that includes not following too closely).
- Pay attention by looking in your mirrors and around you all the time. Check your mirrors every 5-7 seconds, look out both side windows, watch your blind spots (by the way, you can almost entirely eliminate blind spots by setting your mirrors correctly), watch side streets, make eye contact with anyone driving anything in a side street, and with all pedestrians as well.
- Practice hydroplaning, losing control in gravel, oversteering, overcorrecting, skidding, and read and think about what to do if a tire blows (step on the gas).
- Something runs in to you - this is a harder one, but there are still things you can do to avoid getting run in to. Don't pull in to the middle turn-lane of a five-lane road, make sure your path is clear when you're turning, watch behind you whenever you have to slow down or stop on a fast road or highway, and most of all, think about how every other driver is a brain-dead moron and that you have to drive defensively all the time. Be alert, the world needs more lerts!