[dbs]

I think I found the reason the Racer no longer drives big rigs. This looks like a real exciting moment.


Texas TV cameraman captures dramatic video of tractor-trailer crash | Fox News

The driver was definately not driving to the conditions..only one word descibes him / her......idiot

Dave

[dbs]

Was that in Stargate?

Hi Racer

Yes


Dave

[Racer X 69]

I think I found the reason the Racer no longer drives big rigs. This looks like a real exciting moment.


Texas TV cameraman captures dramatic video of tractor-trailer crash | Fox News

I saw plenty of that type of idiotic carnage in the 5 years I held a steering wheel.

One part I certainly don't miss.

[jeallen01]

The driver was definately not driving to the conditions..only one word descibes him / her......idiot

Dave

We also have a "lot" of those "idiots" in the UK - both in fog AND in normal conditions with good visibility.

I can only blame "that" on lack of "experience", i.e. "I've just passed my driving test and so I now know how to drive " (PS: and I've not yet had a "near miss"/"accident" because I'm "so good" at avoiding those sorts of things" !)

That "view" will probably last only until they "experience the real thing" - that is, assuming they survive that "experience":

[Liney]

We also have a "lot" of those "idiots" in the UK - both in fog AND in normal conditions with good visibility.

I can only blame "that" on lack of "experience", i.e. "I've just passed my driving test and so I now know how to drive " (PS: and I've not yet had a "near miss"/"accident" because I'm "so good" at avoiding those sorts of things" !)

That "view" will probably last only until they "experience the real thing" - that is, assuming they survive that "experience":

I saw the accident investigation report from an incident a few years ago when a young woman who had just passed her test drove straight across a cross roads and was hit from the side by a big truck. The junction itself was well signposted and well lit, it was daylight, and the road was dry. Unfortunately they couldn't ask the driver as she was deceased, but the only reason the could come up with for the incident was down to the satnav system she had installed in the car.

If you have one of these satnav systems, you punch in your destination and it gives you directions both on the map display and as audible cues. Driving up to a junction such as this the satnav would tell you which direction to go, and if you are told to go straight on, well the assumption was that the driver was following the satnav instructions and failed to take notice of the big give way signs as she came up to the junction.

[RoxnDox]

Was that in Stargate?

Yup. Great series, filmed mostly just north of us in Vancouver. Amazing how many planets look an awful lot like BC!

[BigMackCam]

We also have a "lot" of those "idiots" in the UK - both in fog AND in normal conditions with good visibility.

I can only blame "that" on lack of "experience", i.e. "I've just passed my driving test and so I now know how to drive " (PS: and I've not yet had a "near miss"/"accident" because I'm "so good" at avoiding those sorts of things" !)

Sadly, it's not just those with a lack of experience... Plenty of mature individuals drive way beyond their abilities and put other folks in danger.

I have little need to drive on motorways / highways these days, and probably only use them once every few weeks, but whenever I do there's always someone who insists on driving behind me at a car's length or two - and I'm not a slow driver... I use the posted speed limits when safe to do so, I keep up with the flow of traffic, and I don't hog lanes. A good number of the offending drivers are middle-aged men and women who really ought to know a lot better than to tail-gate at 70mph...

[gaweidert]

Yup. Great series, filmed mostly just north of us in Vancouver. Amazing how many planets look an awful lot like BC!

I spent a lot of time in Vancouver in 1999 and 2000 for training. Kind of neat to see the signs posted telling the film crews and actors where to go for the day's shooting. That bright yellow pile of sulphur in North Vancouver has been in just about every TV show filmed in that area. I am a big fan of Stanley Park. It was weird driving over the bridge where Deepthroat was killed in the X-files.

[Racer X 69]

I saw the accident investigation report from an incident a few years ago when a young woman who had just passed her test drove straight across a cross roads and was hit from the side by a big truck. The junction itself was well signposted and well lit, it was daylight, and the road was dry. Unfortunately they couldn't ask the driver as she was deceased, but the only reason the could come up with for the incident was down to the satnav system she had installed in the car.

If you have one of these satnav systems, you punch in your destination and it gives you directions both on the map display and as audible cues. Driving up to a junction such as this the satnav would tell you which direction to go, and if you are told to go straight on, well the assumption was that the driver was following the satnav instructions and failed to take notice of the big give way signs as she came up to the junction.

Many years ago I was coming home from my weekly visit to the laundromat, at which time I also walked to the grocery store next door and did my weekly shopping.

So I pulled out of the car park at the laundromat, entered traffic on the boulevard that led towards my home, accelerated to the flow of traffic, all the while exercising my due diligence of scanning traffic, pedestrians, etc and driving accordingly. At the first signal I encountered the light had just turned green in my direction, the lane I was in was clear, the shoulder lane had a heavy truck just getting moving, and I proceeded through the intersection at boulevard speed.

A young woman, whom I later discovered had only two weeks prior received her very first driver's license on her 16th birthday, entered the intersection from the side road, to make a turn across the traffic.

Against the red light in her lane.

I hit her directly in the driver's door of her car.

As he car spun away from mine in the next moment, the door window shattered, and first her head, then shoulders, arms and upper torso came out of her car. Her upper body flopped around like a rag doll, long curly blonde hair flowing, arms flailing . . . . . . . .

Next her car hit another car that was on the through lane of the side street, patiently waiting for the light to change. As the momentum of her car slowed in the collision with the third car, her body fell back inside to the driver's seat.

Meanwhile, my car rotated to the passenger side, the hood and fenders had crumpled dramatically, the passenger fender being compressed all but a few inches from the cowl, and came to a complete stop in about 25 feet. I'm sitting there, hands on the wheel, watching the steam rise from the engine compartment, uttering a word that rhymes with truck, repeatedly under my breath, absorbing the previous few moments.

In very short order, the young girl who was driving the car I just tried to drive through was at my door, blood from wounds on her face pouring into a pristine white sweater, screaming at me, "Why didn't you stop?", over and over.

My utterances of that word ceased, I sat there, still holding the wheel, realizing that the last few moments were still looping in my brain, in extra slow motion, clicked back into the moment, and said to her very quietly, "I had the light, and before I could react there you were. You ran a red light in front of me."

And before she could respond I asked her, "Why weren't you wearing a seatbelt?"

She stopped for a moment, then ranted again about why I didn't stop.

So I interrupted her, and said, "You weren't wearing a seatbelt."

She asked, "How do you know I wasn't wearing a seatbelt?"

So i told her about watching half of her body come out the window of the car, pointed to the blood on what was once a very pretty sweater, and the wounds on her face that were still producing copious amounts of blood. I also pointed out that I was still wearing my seatbelt, and didn't have a scratch on me.

The poor girl realized at that moment just how much she had screwed up, and began sobbing. The driver of the truck had stopped and was standing there, the woman who was in the other car waiting for the light to change, and several other people who had witnessed the accident.

They all confirmed that I had the light, and this pretty young girl ran a red turn light.

I asked the young lady how long she had been driving.

Again her crying began, and she sobbed, "Two weeks."

I only lived a short distance from the scene, so I had the tow truck that hooked to my car tow it to my house. I put my groceries and laundry away, and began the process of getting another ride.

The girl's insurance adjuster came by a few days later, he looked the car over, asked some questions and took my statement. The car was an old 1963 Plymouth Valiant, 4 door with a slant 6 and three on the tree manual transmission, that had belonged to a friend's mother. She had gone to assisted living, and quit driving, and I needed a car, so my buddy sold it to me for $300. The insurance adjuster gave me $800.

He also gave me $200 for my groceries, which had spilled all over the back seat, and something like $500 or so for the inconvenience of the whole affair.

So due to a young driver's inexperience, I had a short period of inconvenience that resulted in an upgrade to a newer car.

[Racer X 69]

Sadly, it's not just those with a lack of experience... Plenty of mature individuals drive way beyond their abilities and put other folks in danger.

I have little need to drive on motorways / highways these days, and probably only use them once every few weeks, but whenever I do there's always someone who insists on driving behind me at a car's length or two - and I'm not a slow driver... I use the posted speed limits when safe to do so, I keep up with the flow of traffic, and I don't hog lanes. A good number of the offending drivers are middle-aged men and women who really ought to know a lot better than to tail-gate at 70mph...

That ain't tailgating Mike.

That's drafting.

[BigMackCam]

That ain't tailgating Mike.

That's drafting.

Over here, it's tail-gating:

https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/driving-advice/tailgating-what-you-need-to-know/

Tail-gating, drafting, whatever... it's dangerous, and whilst it might be OK on the track, it's hugely irresponsible on normal roads - not to mention illegal...

[Racer X 69]

By the way, a recent passing of a legend.

Junior Johnson

Born:
June 28, 1931
Ronda, North Carolina, U.S.

Died:
December 20, 2019 (aged 88)
Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S.

[robtcorl]

As he car spun away from mine in the next moment, the door window shattered, and first her head, then shoulders, arms and upper torso came out of her car. Her upper body flopped around like a rag doll, long curly blonde hair flowing, arms flailing .

I almost quit reading after this paragraph, afraid of where it was going, glad I didn't.

[robtcorl]

The cars that built America is being repeated on the History Channel.
Currently showing the Edsel, bringing back a memory from 1958 when I was 11 years old.
A friend's uncle drove a car transport truck and had stopped at his house with a few freshly made Edsels aboard.
My buddy and I climbed up to get a closer look. We both laughed when we saw the transmission push buttons in the center of the steering wheel, wondering what would happen if you forgot and tried to honk the horn.

[Racer X 69]

Over here, it's tail-gating:

https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/driving-advice/tailgating-what-you-need-to-know/

Tail-gating, drafting, whatever... it's dangerous, and whilst it might be OK on the track, it's hugely irresponsible on normal roads - not to mention illegal...

Of course Mike.

What chaps my hide is the morons who enter a multi lane boulevard, or the expressway, and immediately move to the fast lane, even though they are not moving with the flow of traffic, or traveling at the speed in that lane.

They become rolling road blocks, and present potential for an accident by entering a lane where the traffic is moving much faster than they are.

Did I mention Junior Johnson passed away?