Yes, that’s why I loved driving in my younger years. I think I’m qualified to say that I was a good driver based on my track record of no accidents in 50+ years of driving and a six-star accident-free insurance rating. But part of being a good driver is recognizing your own limitations and I’m definitely not the competent driver I used to be. I’m now a COG – Cautious Old Geezer – rather than a supremely confident young driver who was always speeding. COGs don’t have as much fun as the young’uns.
But I quote you here because it reminds me of comments in some of the aviation videos from Petter Hörnfeldt (“Mentour Pilot”) that the pilot flying will often choose to hand-fly an approach rather than let automation handle it, not only to stay in practice but also, notably, “just because it’s fun”. Is that your experience?
Weirdly, my first accident didn’t happen until I was in my 30s. Though I’m a pretty careful driver, so I think that my luck finally caught up to me.
I’ve only been in 3 accidents. The first was technically my fault, though there were many extenuating circumstances; I was pulling out into a blind curve from an apartment parking lot onto a 40 MPH road (which is so incredibly stupid to build; that road should have been 30 MPH max in that curve), it was a freezing morning, and everything was iced up. I crept carefully to the road, looked, listened, made sure there was no traffic, and went out. My tires lost purchase on the ice just as I started moving into the road, so it stopped as I was barely into it, and a car came around the corner at a bit more than 40 MPH. Thank goodness I wasn’t out in the road very far so that it was just a glancing hit and there was no major damage to either vehicle. But just the same, I was pulling into traffic, an accident occurred, and so it was my fault.
The second accident was when I was driving home from work. The sun was very low on the horizon (where it is basically in your face). I was on a major highway and traffic came to a sudden stop. I slowed down and stopped safely, but the guy who was following too close behind me didn’t and rear-ended me. He also wasn’t wearing any sunglasses, unlike me, and may have been blinded by the sun.
Unfortunately, when we exchanged info, his BS car insurance in San Francisco would never answer the phone, and they never returned any of my calls, and they didn’t even have a web site. When I went to complain about the company to the BBB, it was full of other complaints saying the same thing; it was basically a fake insurance company that didn’t do anything.
The only good thing there was that the damage to my car was minor, just a dented rear bumper but nothing else. And I ended up buying a new car within the next year anyway. And the guy who hit me, his car was undriveable.
The most recent accident (and hopefully last one I had) also was not my fault. I was taking my daughter to school, and I was pulling into the road that her school is on (from a turn lane, no stop sign or traffic signal) and a person went through a stop sign and hit me. Very low speed collision and a glancing blow, and the biggest problem there was that (of all things) my windshield wiper fluid tank ruptured. No other damage except a slightly banged-up front end. This time the lady who hit me had real insurance, and they fixed up my car, which is a good thing because my car was only a couple of years old.
But yeah, all through my late teens and into my 20s I never got into an accident. Because I’m pretty cautious as a driver, and (as I said before) I don’t enjoy driving anyway, so I never did any crazy joyrides or anything.
In my younger days, I used to love a good road trip. The open road, the freedom, driving though unfamiliar towns, seeing new sights-- getting to where I was headed was half the fun.
I still enjoy the occasional road trip, but the older I get, the less I do.
If it helps to raise my status in your estimation, as a young driver I did some dangerous shit (particularly in my 280Z period). I somehow managed to get away with it through an awesome skill known as “dumb luck”!
Thinking back to my 280Z days, on one occasion I was speeding down a street with a friend when I ran into a radar trap and got pulled over. For some reason that I don’t recall, the cop wanted me to pop open the hatch, which I did. There was almost nothing there except … an obviously opened and half-full bottle of vodka rolling around in there.
The very kind police officer – bless him and all his heirs – pretended not to see it. I just got a speeding ticket for way less than my actual speed.
California recently eased the law on this. There was an unintended consequence where people who were dining out didn’t want to waste a partial bottle of wine so they’d finish it. Now they can bring it home for later.
Ontario has always had particularly strict laws in that regard. So, again, bless this fine officer and all his heirs for letting me get away with it!
I have other examples but if I list all the follies of my youth I fear that some of youse will think less of my driving competence. Suffice to say, I am currently a COG – Cautious Old Fart – and have been for decades!
And as to alcohol, I say “great stuff”, but completely incompatible with driving. My rule is literally zero alcohol. One of the insidious effects of alcohol is reducing inhibition and increasing confidence, which is why a mature (i.e.- Old Geezer) approach is to draw a self-enforced bright line: “I don’t care how confident and competent you feel, if you’ve had even one drink, no driving for you!”
Right. Perfectly legal in the trunk. A hatchback or van is a little iffier, especially if there are passengers who might be able to reach behind the seat. When a cop stopped me for driving without valid registration (we’d failed to renew it)
The cop was very kind, and told me that if i promised to renew the registration online before i started the car again, he’d just cite me, and not do anything more. He also said if i went to court to challenge the citation I’d win, but i was in the wrong, and didn’t want to go to court over it.
Exactly right. Because in a vehicle like that, it’s simple for someone in the car to be drinking, see a cop, and toss it back there, while claiming that it’s out of reach. Or vice versa, as you said someone could reach back there and snag a bottle. So you have to make sure your vehicle has an actual trunk isolated from the rest of the car. (Every car I’ve owned has had such a trunk, luckily.)
Some sedan-type and coupe-type cars have a pass-through from back seat to the trunk, so this isn’t foolproof, but I have never heard of any legal complications arising from that.
And there’s nothing stopping someone with a trunk from pulling over, getting out, going back to the trunk and taking a swig either. I just assume the law is written in such a way to make it a real pain in the ass to get to alcohol while driving, while not trying to ensure that it’s impossible. Improve safety by discouraging the practice.
This is fair. The only situation in which the passthrough becomes exploitable is the “chugging off an open container, get spotted, hide the container in the trunk without being clearly observed” case.
I found this cite to a Toronto law firm talking about Ontario open container laws. Which seem a bit disorganized in that one regulation says open containers are prohibited in vehicles, period. But then another regulation carves out an exception for open containers inaccessible from the passenger compartment. Bottom line: that situation seems to be sorta clear, and sorta muddy. I suspect a hostile LEO could make an issue of an open container in a trunk if they really wanted to, but it’d be outside their normal policy.
I’d not be greatly worried about an open container in a trunk, other than the implication that somebody in that car had recently been drinking from it, so police suspicion of impaired driving would naturally go up.
So how are you supposed to take them to recycling, or even to the dump?
Are you supposed to just dump them in the woods at home? (Yea, I know. Just about every farm around here has an old dump site. But that really isn’t in style any longer.)
