I served in a rural fire district, often alone on my truck until other volunteers or the paid ambulance EMTs arrived on scene.
Because of what I saw and heard, I know many things about the causes of accidents on rural roads and highways, things I sometimes wish I didn't know .
First, tailgating. I see tailgaters like they are people in the act of committing negligent homicide. Think about this: How would you prepare for being struck by a 2000 pound vehicle at around 2 mph? Helmet? Football Pads? Wrap yourself in a mattress?. Say you are going 60 mph and the car behind you is tailgating you and you have to suddenly stop, slowing quickly from 60 to 40 mph. If the tailgater was also doing 60 and doesn't slow, you will be struck by that 2000 lb. car at the equivalent of 20 mph. Now how would you prepare? Even airbags and crumple zones don't offer much protection from a rear end collision, at 2 or 20 mph.
Even worse is the secondary result of being struck from behind while still in motion, being out of control and heading into oncoming traffic. First hit from behind at 20 mph, now dissipating the remaining 40 mph you are carrying into an oncoming car, a tree, a ditch, maybe the car in front of you that made you slow to 40 in the first place.
I see tailgaters as potential negligent killers. I wish everyone could see and understand that keeping an extra 4 or 5 car lengths between you and the car in front of you raises everyones odds of getting home alive greatly. Being too close to the car in front of you is frankly just asking for a whole lot of trouble and catastrophe.
Second, impaired drivers. I know that users develop a tolerance to any drug and just setting an arbitrary level of a drug in a persons system is a poor measure of impairment. My first beer impaired me much more than 5 or 6 would now. I live in a state that has legalized marijuana, my first joint-someday- will impair me much more than the hundredth one should I decide to continue to use. Opiates and Benzoes are even worse, with tolerances developing rapidly and higher doses following.
In my mind, the real crime is selfishness and a lack of concern for the safety of others, and it doesn't apply to just drunk and impaired drivers. A driver that tailgates because they are in a hurry is being selfish. A person that runs a red light to avoid waiting through another cycle is being selfish. A drunk that decides to drive home rather than get a cab is being selfish.
Selfish driving is the crime and it doesn't have a measurable level like a drug in a bloodstream. The only measurable quantity is a driving record and I am all for setting some driving infractions into a much more serious category, similar to what we consider careless or reckless driving today. I think we should record cases of selfish driving and consider them extremely indicative of a persons potential for being a potential killer on the road.
Hit and run? Huge mark on your record. Driving impaired? High value should be put on that indicator. Tailgating because you are in a hurry? Huge. Running red lights to get to a job on time? Huge. Run a red light because you just couldn't stop safely in time? Not so much. Speeding when you are trying to get the kids to school on time? Huge. Doing 55 in a 45 when everyone else is too? No big deal, maybe a speeding ticket but not my definition of selfish driving by any means.
It becomes painfully obvious to anyone that has seen as many accident scenes as I have that the main cause of accidents is selfishness and lack of concern for others safety. The most common thing I heard from victims and the people that caused the accident was the same: "I never thought this would happen to me".
I can't ever say that. I think it will happen to me. All the time everyday. I expect it, and get very angry when I see people driving in a way that will inevitably have them looking into the eyes of an EMT or a volunteer like myself and saying "I never thought it would happen to me". Selfishness triggers me badly.
It is hard to be out there driving because it is a necessary part of my survival in this world knowing that it is in many ways the highest threat to my survival I experience. I can't help it, when someone causes a near miss, I react with full adrenaline and 100% percent fight or flight thinking, sometimes for hours. Retelling the story of a near miss brings me to sweat and anger, talking about it here in this post has forced me to go back and edit out stronger language many many times. I can't be alone, are there any others out there that can offer some insight? Support? Being this angry and threatened this often is causing me too much wear and tear, too much stress on my body and I worry that it will never get better, I also worry that I might get complacent and less vigilant and end up in a ditch or in someones ambulance because of it.
Because of what I saw and heard, I know many things about the causes of accidents on rural roads and highways, things I sometimes wish I didn't know .
First, tailgating. I see tailgaters like they are people in the act of committing negligent homicide. Think about this: How would you prepare for being struck by a 2000 pound vehicle at around 2 mph? Helmet? Football Pads? Wrap yourself in a mattress?. Say you are going 60 mph and the car behind you is tailgating you and you have to suddenly stop, slowing quickly from 60 to 40 mph. If the tailgater was also doing 60 and doesn't slow, you will be struck by that 2000 lb. car at the equivalent of 20 mph. Now how would you prepare? Even airbags and crumple zones don't offer much protection from a rear end collision, at 2 or 20 mph.
Even worse is the secondary result of being struck from behind while still in motion, being out of control and heading into oncoming traffic. First hit from behind at 20 mph, now dissipating the remaining 40 mph you are carrying into an oncoming car, a tree, a ditch, maybe the car in front of you that made you slow to 40 in the first place.
I see tailgaters as potential negligent killers. I wish everyone could see and understand that keeping an extra 4 or 5 car lengths between you and the car in front of you raises everyones odds of getting home alive greatly. Being too close to the car in front of you is frankly just asking for a whole lot of trouble and catastrophe.
Second, impaired drivers. I know that users develop a tolerance to any drug and just setting an arbitrary level of a drug in a persons system is a poor measure of impairment. My first beer impaired me much more than 5 or 6 would now. I live in a state that has legalized marijuana, my first joint-someday- will impair me much more than the hundredth one should I decide to continue to use. Opiates and Benzoes are even worse, with tolerances developing rapidly and higher doses following.
In my mind, the real crime is selfishness and a lack of concern for the safety of others, and it doesn't apply to just drunk and impaired drivers. A driver that tailgates because they are in a hurry is being selfish. A person that runs a red light to avoid waiting through another cycle is being selfish. A drunk that decides to drive home rather than get a cab is being selfish.
Selfish driving is the crime and it doesn't have a measurable level like a drug in a bloodstream. The only measurable quantity is a driving record and I am all for setting some driving infractions into a much more serious category, similar to what we consider careless or reckless driving today. I think we should record cases of selfish driving and consider them extremely indicative of a persons potential for being a potential killer on the road.
Hit and run? Huge mark on your record. Driving impaired? High value should be put on that indicator. Tailgating because you are in a hurry? Huge. Running red lights to get to a job on time? Huge. Run a red light because you just couldn't stop safely in time? Not so much. Speeding when you are trying to get the kids to school on time? Huge. Doing 55 in a 45 when everyone else is too? No big deal, maybe a speeding ticket but not my definition of selfish driving by any means.
It becomes painfully obvious to anyone that has seen as many accident scenes as I have that the main cause of accidents is selfishness and lack of concern for others safety. The most common thing I heard from victims and the people that caused the accident was the same: "I never thought this would happen to me".
I can't ever say that. I think it will happen to me. All the time everyday. I expect it, and get very angry when I see people driving in a way that will inevitably have them looking into the eyes of an EMT or a volunteer like myself and saying "I never thought it would happen to me". Selfishness triggers me badly.
It is hard to be out there driving because it is a necessary part of my survival in this world knowing that it is in many ways the highest threat to my survival I experience. I can't help it, when someone causes a near miss, I react with full adrenaline and 100% percent fight or flight thinking, sometimes for hours. Retelling the story of a near miss brings me to sweat and anger, talking about it here in this post has forced me to go back and edit out stronger language many many times. I can't be alone, are there any others out there that can offer some insight? Support? Being this angry and threatened this often is causing me too much wear and tear, too much stress on my body and I worry that it will never get better, I also worry that I might get complacent and less vigilant and end up in a ditch or in someones ambulance because of it.
