Cars about to crash in front of you - sound horn, or not?

[Jinx]

For first scenario, hit the horn! Not only might alert the driver coming at you, it will help arouse witnesses! For second scenario, it sounds to me like you were not directly involved which may just cause confusion.

[robby]

@Strain of Thought

robby, a few people have jumped on you already but for Napier’s sake I think I ought to also. Your comparison of failing to honk with failing to call the police is beyond ridiculous. Even ignoring the central question of whether or not honking would help, this is still an issue of reaction time, not morality. Calling the police is not something that must be decided upon and done within seconds. I think it’s far too easy for you, sitting comfortably in front of a computer with your entire minutes of time to mull the issue over, to come to the conclusion that someone else should have made a different decision in a situation they weren’t prepared for and that you weren’t in.

I am truly mystified by this reaction from you and others. In my experience, honking is far more likely to help than hurt in virtually all circumstances.

I did not mull the issue over for minutes in front of my computer. My first reaction, upon reading the OP, was that the OP should have honked in both situations. I still feel that way.

I’ve honked in parking lots when someone is backing up into a person pushing a shopping cart, and the person in the car stopped immediately. To the best of my knowledge, the driver did not waste time looking for where the honk was coming from.

I’ve honked when drivers on the freeway have been drifting into my lane, and they immediately swerved back. To the best of my knowledge, the driver did not waste time looking for where the honk was coming from.

I had an oncoming driver once drift across the yellow line into my lane. I immediately sounded the horn and swerved as far to the right as I could. The driver, who eyes were somewhere other than where he was going, immediately swerved back.

In my experience, an unexpected long honk makes people either stop or reverse their actions (i.e. swerve back into the lane they were in), or at a minimum, quickly look around.

I think you and others are making this entirely too hard, with your decision trees and matrixes. IMHO, if you see a dangerous situation, you should do everything you can to alert others. Period.

[Napier]

>I am truly mystified by this reaction from you and others.
>IMHO, if you see a dangerous situation, you should do everything you can to alert others. Period.

Robby, from my point of view your capacity for misunderstanding and accusation is stunning to the point of my temporary speechlessness.

I asked a question about whether the horn is more helpful or more distracting.

You blew by that question and answered another question that I wasn’t asking, namely, should I lift a finger to help prevent other people from being killed. You accused me of being content to let others die because I couldn’t be bothered.

Why in the world should I be anything other than horribly offended by your accusations?

OF COURSE you should do everything you can to alert others to a dangerous situation. WHY are you casting me on the opposite side of this question? WHO in this discussion has not obviously agreed on this point from the start? DON’T say it’s me! I want to help. I wouldn’t be posting in the first place otherwise.

And, are you still not getting the original question? Can you really not imagine that the horn could distract people and cause harm? Do you not see various experiences and opinions that suggest the possibility? Can you not even see the plausibility of the question?

STOP ACCUSING ME OF BEING UNWILLING TO HELP OTHERS. PERIOD.

[Sophistry_and_Illusion]

@Strain of Thought

Sophistry and Illusion, why couldn’t you see the mail truck to begin with? Was your vision obstructed by a wall or hedge? If that’s the case there needs to be a rule about not honking when it’s not possible for a driver to see the danger yet and what they really need is undistracted reaction time. Could the honker have been honking at the mail truck and not you?

I think it was in front of another car, so I didn’t immediately see it begin to leave the curve. I probably would have done so within a fraction of a second had my attention not been drawn away by the horn honking.

[robby]

@Napier

Robby, from my point of view your capacity for misunderstanding and accusation is stunning to the point of my temporary speechlessness.

I have made no accusations in this thread, and I don’t think the situation as presented in the OP is all that hard to understand.

@Napier

I asked a question about whether the horn is more helpful or more distracting.

Not having conducted any studies on the subject, I can only offer my experience and opinion: in virtually all cases, I believe the horn is helpful in a dangerous situation. This is why all cars have horns in the first place, and why cars in many states will fail a safety inspection if the horn is inoperable.

@Napier

You blew by that question and answered another question that I wasn’t asking, namely, should I lift a finger to help prevent other people from being killed. You accused me of being content to let others die because I couldn’t be bothered.

Why in the world should I be anything other than horribly offended by your accusations?

Again, I have made no accusations, and I’m sorry you’ve taken my comments so personally.

@Napier

OF COURSE you should do everything you can to alert others to a dangerous situation. WHY are you casting me on the opposite side of this question? WHO in this discussion has not obviously agreed on this point from the start? DON’T say it’s me! I want to help. I wouldn’t be posting in the first place otherwise.

I acknowledged this back in my first reply.

@Napier

And, are you still not getting the original question? Can you really not imagine that the horn could distract people and cause harm? Do you not see various experiences and opinions that suggest the possibility? Can you not even see the plausibility of the question?

I get the question. I really can’t imagine very many realistic cases where a horn could exacerbate an impending accident.

@Napier

STOP ACCUSING ME OF BEING UNWILLING TO HELP OTHERS. PERIOD.

Again, I have made no accusations, and I’m sorry you’ve taken my comments so personally. I am certainly NOT accusing you of being unwilling to help others.

[robby]

I just wanted to add that, on rereading, my original reply upthread could be taken as an accusation of uncaring on the part of the OP. That was not my intention.

[Napier]

Thanks, robby.

Onward and upward.