I get where you’re coming from, but respectfully disagree.
Whilst I have no idea of the mind-set of the driver (perhaps he was suicidal and DID intend to crash, taking others out with him??) his actions were culpable enough that a collision was extremely likely. It was sheer luck that kept him (and others) safe.
So when you engage in activities where ‘luck’ is the thing keeping you alive, i dispute that the word ‘accident’ is appropriate.
A friend of mine from way back in high school was living in Ann Arbor and was forced off the road by an idiot passing illegally on a hill. He was in a hurry to get his kids to a theater before the show started, so he didn’t have time to stop to check on the woman he’d just caused to wreck her car.
She didn’t make it. No remorse from the idiot, whose excuse was that he was he was a missionary (from where? Hell?), and so, presumably, entitled to kill the occasional innocent person.
Fuck you, missionary idiot. Die a painful death.
Enter the Flagon
What kind of prison time did the guy end up getting for that, out of curiosity?
Err… no. You want to set it so you can just barely see the side of your car.
This is how it’s always been recommended to set your side-view mirrors since the dawn of time. Literally, if you Google “how to set side-view mirrors” the top result (from AAA), which is bolded and outlined says:
Google can’t be wrong, man (most of the top results also say the same thing).
Obviously, you don’t want to see too much of your car or you’re just creating a smaller/redundant view, but if you can’t see it at all you are likely leaving a pocket of blindness. You just want a sliver.
The guy got no prison time at all, though I think he did get a suspended sentence. Our courts tend to go pretty light on such people, ISTM.
Rigamarole, I can come up with websites that say the opposite:
http://m.wikihow.com/Set-Rear‐View-Mirrors-to-Eliminate-Blind-Spots
But let’s use a little logic , if you can see any part of your car then that’s part of the road you aren’t seeing as a trade off. Seeing the side of your car tells you nothing about the safety of the situation it’s just a blind spot you gain additional view of the road if you can’t see the car. I even took a driver’s safety course and the instructor said the same thing that information is out-of-date, you shouldn’t be able to see the side of your car at all.
I’ve had this debate with folks, both before and after it changed my family’s lives.
In my area, the state patrol and the office of highway safety conduct highly-publicized traffic control events during the times of year when most accidents happen, historically. They cooperate with local police agencies, do roadblocks/license checkpoints, DUI checkpoints, etc. Inevitably, there are those who demand to know why those officers aren’t out there locking up “real criminals.”
First off? The state patrol and the GOHS are primarily traffic cops. That’s what they do. Traffic patrol is their jobs. If they aren’t doing checkpoints and writing tickets on the interstate, they’re not back at the office investigating murders and assaults and aggravated mopery. They patrol the highways.
Second? “Real criminals?” More people are injured in traffic accidents in my state than by “real criminals.” More people die in car crashes than by homicide each year in my state. And, unlike many homicides? The people who die on the roads haven’t necessarily done anything to put themselves at unnecessary risk. Half of those homicide victims were killed while engaging in some other criminal activity - not that drug buyers deserve death, or stupid kids trying to prove their manhoods in bar fights. But they’ve put themselves in a risky position. “Driving to work” shouldn’t be a risky situation. Driving the kids home from the ball game shouldn’t be deadly. But they are, too often.
My husband’s former sergeant stated the position well: We too readily accept traffic deaths as “normal.” Somehow, we think that a guy who kills someone with a gun is more culpable than a guy who kills someone with a car. And Sarge invited those people who think that traffic deaths ought to be considered “normal” to join him the next time he gets to go knock on a door and tell a mother that her child is dead, or a husband that his family is at the trauma center, etc. If DUI checkpoints prevent that knock on the door? I’m there. If license/registration checkpoints get untrained, uninsured motorists off the road? Keep up the good work. If a state patrolman waves you over to the verge, and fixes the carseat that wasn’t installed correctly? I don’t know about your child, but mine is worth those few minutes.
Almost three years ago, my whole family’s life changed, because a driver (in his 30s, with a commercial drivers license, for pity’s sake!) failed to yield to an emergency vehicle running code. I halfway wish that my husband had just hit the SOB instead of the ditch - the guy zigged, zagged, and then stopped dead in the roadway, on a straight, flat stretch with good visibility and plenty of room to pull to the shoulder safely. We got lucky. My husband was airlifted to the trauma center after being cut out of that car. He suffered a concussion, fractured orbit, five broken teeth, three broken ribs, broken collarbone, broken elbow, collapsed lung, bruised kidney requiring two blood transfusions, soft tissue tears in both shoulders, one knee, and one hip, broken pelvis, four fractured spinal processes, and surgical repair of a tib-fib fracture that required 24 pieces of titanium to piece back together. That was lucky. He shouldn’t have made it out of that car alive. And he’s still fighting for recovery. About two months after he came home from the hospital, he was diagnosed with MRSA and enterobactyr in the broken leg. Got lucky again, saved his leg. Then it was a C Diff infection from the heavy duty IV antibiotics used to save his leg. Hundreds of hours of painful therapy, more than a dozen surgeries, fighting the insurance company for the treatment he needs, etc. And that’s fucking LUCKY. Because he’s alive. He’s been able to get to know his little girls. He has all of his limbs and his faculties. Sure, he can’t work, he can’t sit up for more than an hour, he can’t go watch a ball game with his dad or go fishing with his buddies, but he’s alive.
And the guy who caused it all? He got 3 points on his license and a $1000 fine. Didn’t even lose his commercial rating until he got a DUI a few weeks after the wreck.
Because endangering lives on the highway is “normal.”
(Six months before Tony’s crash, we attended the funeral of one of his colleagues. Drunk girl, wrong way on the interstate. Bobby didn’t have a chance to watch his daughters grow up. He wasn’t 30 yet. A couple of nights ago, a metro Atlanta officer died in a similar crash. We’re outraged when someone picks up a weapon and aims. Not so much when the weapon has a transmission.)
Me too. When I was teaching my daughter to drive I drilled it into her head that A signal light is NOT a promise.
Read the directions carefully. When setting the left mirror, you’re supposed to barely see the side of your car while your head is touching the window. When setting the passenger mirror, you’re supposed to barely see the side of your car while you’re head is over the center console. When you’re actually driving, your head is presumably directly over your body, and you can’t see your own car in either mirror.
Jeez, I’ve had this argument with friends and family so many freaking times, here’s a video that shows what muldoonthief is saying.
But every time I get in someone else’s car, whether it’s a friend, family member, or rental car, the mirrors are invariably set the wrong way. Everyone seems to think they have to keep an eye on the side of their car while driving. People have even invented "blind spot detection" technology to correct a problem that wouldn’t exist if you just turned your mirrors out a few degrees! [Del]Sheesh![/del] [Checks forum.] Motherfuckers!!!
You know that the mirrors are going to show other people a different field of view unless you are the same height, right?
My dad phrased it differently. Told me “Never trust a turn signal.” How many times do you see an individual turn on their turn signal, then pass several possible turns before getting to the one they want? Or the person who doesn’t appear to know their turn signal is on. We jokingly observe that they “Must be going around the world to the right.”
My least favorite, tho most often encountered behaviors, involve on/off ramps.
A lot of driving annoyances can be chalked up to cluelessness or carelessness. But these types of maneuvers impress me as intentional dickishness. (Also in that category is the trusty trucks blocking use of both lanes before an eventual merge, but we’ve done that one to death!)
While we’re on the subject of merges, while tailgaters are always welcome to break up the monotony of a long safe drive, they are especially interesting (read: dangerous) on an on-ramp when there are slow people ahead of me. Tailgating me will not cause the car in front of me to go faster: if I did move up to meet them I would just be swapping the pleasure of trying to merge at less than highway speeds with someone right on my tail for the pleasure of trying to merge at less than highway speeds with someone right on my tail AND someone directly in front of me.
Not sure where you are going with this. No one is saying there is ONE SETTING that applies to all people. We are saying there is ONE METHOD to do the setting, and that method is the one everyone should use to set their mirrors.
See post before mine.
Danny Butterman: “Hey, why can’t we say ‘accident,’ again?”
Nicholas Angel: “Because ‘accident’ implies there’s nobody to blame.”
There was arsehole driver I wanted to call off today ! I was in the school zone and the speed limit is 20 MPH and some arsehole was right on my car rear end , if I had to stop fast the arsehole would had rear ended my car. I am not about to get a speeding ticket b/c some arsehole was too stupid to leave their house on time and has to speed to get to some place. My city increase the speed limit from
30 to 35 right near the school zone so people now hate to slow down to 20 and drive 35 right through the school zone. We have a flashing sign that post how fast people are driving . We really need a stupid people signal that warn you to look out for arsehole drivers. I have the best driving rate you can get .
A taller person in a car whose mirrors are set for a shorter person will see a slightly lower view, of course, but I don’t think they’d see a different left-right view unless his/her head wasn’t on the center line of the seat. So it wouldn’t effectively change the blind spot issue.
Are you saying that height would make a difference to blind spot settings? Please explain.
A taller person will move the seat backwards, which will require the mirrors to be re-aimed.