Here’s a possibly instructive comparison. How many Americans know (even vaguely) someone who died in the war in Afghanistan? How many know someone who died in a car crash?
Afghanistan war deaths, 2001-2010, US only, contractor and military: 1486 (source). That’s not counting wounded (deaths only), coalition casualties, Afghan army, or local civilians (not because they don’t matter, but because they’re unlikely to be personally known to the average American).
Automobile fatalities by year, an incomplete list:
Note that the auto fatalities list contains only five years (because those were the only ones in my source that matched the dates of the Afghanistan War (2001-present) and the Afghanistan War is ten years underway, so you’d need to roughly double those 212,997 total auto fatalities to compare.
Quick back-of-the-envelope calculation, therefore, says that driving in the US is 286 times deadlier than fighting in Afghanistan.
These numbers leave out the wounded, and my basis for even making the comparison is questionable at best. But our general sense that driving somewhere is a routine, safe activity is probably a more result of the mind’s ability to filter out unpleasant information than it is a reality.
I have no trouble doing this. Going back and forth between front, rear-window and dash is a routine they teach you in driver’s ed. It has saved my ass on a few occasions.
Easy, folks. Let’s not turn this into a debate when so much of the arguments (on both sides) is pure conjecture. Could my sisters, and Wendy, have driven differently to avoid their respective not-at-fault accidents? Possibly, or perhaps even likely. But, I was not in the car with any of them, so I do not know the exact situation.
I will say sometimes these sorts of things happen in about a second, giving the victim drivers just enough time to realize they’re about to be hit, and that’s it. When my car was totalled in 1998–rear ended by a semi while stopped in traffic–I had precisely enough time to think, “He’s not going to miss” when I heard him screeching toward me and glanced in the rearview mirror. A half second later, I was caught in a storm of crunching metal and shattering glass.
My first sister had just enough time in the first accident to realize she was about to be hit and instinctively, ineffectively reached out with her arm to try and shield our mother. I don’t think my other sister ever saw the car that hit her, as she was watching other traffic to safely navigate the turn. As for Wendy–no one will ever know what happened from her perspective. She left behind a husband and two children.
The unnerving thing is I can drive as defensively as I know to be, and still be killed by the actions of another in a split-second instant. I could be dead before I know I’ve been in an accident.
Yes–the eyewitness to the crash says the police car was not even in sight*. As the whole thing happened in about two minutes, I’d say he backed off almost immediately.
I appreciate the sympathy offered, Ann Onimous, I’ll pass that along to her. I think she found some comfort in the almost certainty that he never felt a thing (based on the condition of his vehicle, I don’t see how death was anything but instant).
Yeah, all right. I won’t argue with this, although I still think that avoiding an accident in this way is sometimes possible, but certainly not always.
Defensive driving can’t reduce your risk to zero, but it can minimize it a lot. One of my key principles is simply to never assume that other drivers are going to do what they’re supposed to do. That, and always leave yourself as much space to maneuver as you can.
I try to drive as if my car is actually invisible. I expect no one will make any reactions at all to anything I do, and in particular no one will ever hit the brakes to make room for me.
I’ve never been in an accident (as a driver, once as a passenger) but almost every single time I get out on the road for more than a mile I will have a near miss. Almost every time it’s because someone is in such a hurry. They swerve around all over the road to get a few car-lengths ahead, only to be caught by the lights just like the rest of us. They can’t wait until traffic is clear to pull out when if they just waited another twenty seconds the light would turn red, making a clear path. People get so mad if you don’t go above the speed limit, which I refuse to do to placate them. I have never had a ticket and I don’t plan to get one. I’ve been honked at for not turning after the green arrow goes out despite the fact that turning then would be illegal. I get cussed because I hold the opinion that yellow does indeed mean SLOW DOWN, not speed up and hope nobody hits me. I don’t pull out to the center to wait to turn either. And the honking tells me people are annoyed but what the fuck man? I don’t want to be caught in the center and be forced to turn after the light changes so crossing traffic doesn’t have to wait.
I am a very careful driver. I try to keep my eyes on everyone and keep a safe distance between me and the car ahead, but so often that is an invitation for someone to squeeze in between even if it means pulling out into the middle of traffic and sitting there sideways until the car ahead moves. It’s almost impossible to truly drive defensively these days; you just can’t anticipate twenty other drivers’ impatient stunts.
Oh, not always, no. And the times it’s saved my hide have been when I didn’t live in the big city.
Back in a town of only 300,000 I could keep a full car length between me and the car ahead of me. Do that in the big city and another car will merge in and fill that space so you’re bumper to bumper and if someone rear-ends you, you and two more cars at least will be in bumper-denting a chain reaction.
In the smaller city though, on a few occasions I was able to lurch forward and avoid being rear-ended by people who, for whatever reason, hadn’t noticed that the rest of us had stopped.
Ruffian, I’m sorry to hear about all these troubles. Were cellphones involved? The drivers who hit your relatives seemed slightly inattentive.
I believe in defensive driving (no accidents in 15 years, and that one was a minor fender bender because I was alert) but it will not always protect you. My daughter’s only accident came when she was stopped on an exit ramp. The car behind her had stopped also - but the car behind him pushed him into her. She had stopped far enough behind the car in front of her not to hit it. My wife was hit by a red light runnier - when she was the second or third car through the intersection after the green. Let’s not blame the victims.
They have signs on Route 80 here in NJ that say “keep a safe following distance”, but when I try to do that people keep cutting me off. I see a lot of agressive drivers who change lands and weave around cars because they’re in a rush. When I see them coming up behind me (I check the rearview mirror a lot) my instinct is to try to not give them room so they have to slow down but I realized giving them room and leaving myself space is the smartest thing to do.
I had an accident 3 years ago when I was trying to merge onto a highway. I had to pull out past some bushes in front of a gas station to check for oncoming cars. When there was a break in the traffic I was about to go when an SUV slammed into the back of me. The other driver said she was watching the oncoming traffic too, but since she was higher up she must have seen the break in traffic before I did. The only problem is she didn’t look to see what was in front of her, she just floored it. My Cougar was totalled.
On Mothers Day this year I was driving down the road when an older woman in the oncoming lane made a left turn in front of me with NO TIME TO MAKE THE TURN. I couldn’t believe it. I still can’t believe it. I must have been invisible. I slammed on the brakes and still hit the side of her car (very close to the front).
My theory is she was trying to off her husband who was riding shotgun. My Galant was totalled. Now I have a nice cheap Honda.
My immediate thought was that he needed to adjust for the number of drivers in the US, but upon further consideration, you’re probably closer to being right. It’s doubtful that more than 10% of Americans are not at least passengers of motor vehicles (be it cars or buses) on a regular basis, even if they themselves don’t drive. Who does that leave, shut-ins, people who living in walking cities and/or bike friendly ones, and those who take trains and the subway exclusively? That can’t account for too many folks.
Ruffian, I’m sorry to hear about the accidents, but it’s hard not to assume that sister #1 wasn’t paying enough attention herself if she had to brake so hard she barely avoided rear-ending the person in front of her as well. Maybe you should gently suggest a defensive driving course? The one I took for work years ago so I could drive the university vehicles was just one Saturday, and it made me think quite a lot about how much of being a good driver depends on recognizing what other drivers are doing. Plus, if her state is like NH, you can subtract up to 3 points off your license - though we found it slightly unjust that those of us with none couldn’t bank them
Anytime you have to brake hard on the road, you’re likely to get rear-ended. If you are braking hard because of unexpected slowed traffic, then you are following too closely. If you’re giving yourself enough space, you will see the backup in plenty of time to react smoothly. The safe driving distance between you and the car ahead of you is not as narrow as most people seem to think it is. What works in smooth-flowing traffic isn’t the same as what works if you have to stop suddenly.
Also, anytime I do have to slow down unexpectedly, I *always *tap/hit the brakes repeatedly to alert the drivers behind me.
I’m not saying the driver could have avoided the accident, but braking hard in slowing traffic is how rear-end collisions happen, so it’s important to drive with that in mind.
You mean like the young couple who was killed? What should they have done, oh master(s) of second-guessing, since they were likely not in a position to see the oncoming car that was blocked by the car behind them (until it dashed over to the shoulder, saving itself while simultaneously blocking the escape route)?
The thing is, I agree with the sentiment that too many people don’t approach driving with a defensive mindset. But when a crash happens, it’s always because somebody was careless, malicious, or experienced the occasional equipment malfunction (which can also be due to carelessness and neglect, of course). That’s the somebody who needs to get the blame, not the innocent bystanders who get crashed into because for whatever reason they couldn’t get out of the way in time. To blame those people is as ridiculous to me as blaming a baseball player for striking out sometimes – you’re saying that 100% of the time they have to be able to analyze an incredibly complex situation (often after being taken by surprise!) in a fraction of a second and make the correct decision and then have time to take the correct action. Sure, if you’re aware, paying attention, planning escape routes in advance, etc. etc. like good defensive drivers do 99 times you might be able to avoid a crash. But the one time you fail to do so (and it WILL happen to EVERYONE eventually, to varying degrees of “crash”) would you stand for someone blaming you because someone else ran a light or was dicking around with their cell phone?
Actually, the statistics includes all fatalities resulting from motor vehicle accidents, including pedestrians who were hit by cars. If you look at the PDF file linked above, you’ll see that about 1/8 of motor vehicle accident victims are pedestrians.
I don’t think anyone is trying to say they were at fault for the accident, however it’s definitely good advice to get some training in driving defensively and to consiously choose to drive with that mindset. Your goal isn’t necessarily to prevent all accidents, but to be aware of other people (idiots) and minimize the damage they cause to you and your property.
No one is omnipotent and no matter how defensively you drive you are still at risk of being in an accident but isn’t it worth spending a little time learning how to protect yourself?
The time to say these things to people however is NOT right after they’ve had an accident - no matter how you phrase it you can’t stop the impression that you’re telling them they could have prevented whatever happened. It would be like telling someone who just got mugged they should be taking self defense courses. If they come to that idea on their own - that’s of course a different story.
She left behind a husband and two children.
