I saw a young girl about 12 or 13 almost get hit by a truck yesterday. She was attempting to cross a busy intersection. It was St Paddy’s Day and she was dressed all in green with a big green bow in her hair. She was not walking but riding a battery operated scooter. She was very pretty too.
She did wait for the light to change. It did, and she proceeded to cross in front of my car. I was in the far left lane waiting for the left turn signal and she passed in front of me. I was stopped. But she could not see a big truck slightly behind me in the right (left turning) lane, just moving ahead to make his left turn. That driver was moving ahead slowly and fortunately saw the youngster and stopped short.
The little lass on the scooter tried to stop her electric vehicle, but could not, and continued across in front of the abruptly stopped and rocking truck fearfully. Thankfully she arrived safe and sound on the other side.
If the driver of the truck had been in a hurry at that light…the story would be a tragic one.
Events at that intersection might have been a replay of a tragic accident at the very same light, two or more years ago, when a young boy was killed at the same exact spot. That other driver was in a hurry to make the light. She sped ahead. The young boy died on that road intersection tangled up in the mangled bike he was riding. I think of both him and the driver often as I drive through that intersesction. Only a second slower speed and two lives and their familes would have been so deifferent today.
It got me thinking about speeding. It is almost always being in a hurry that causes accidents
So advice to my readers…please drive slowly.
Driving fast always reduces your options of avoidance if something unexpected occurs ahead of you, at high speed you simply have less time and less options to avoid or present a terrible accident. Youu loose the option of avoidance! You loose!
Don’t tail gate. It takes a car traveling along at 45mph about 170 feet to stop on a dry road. (A car length is about 15 feet so estimate a bit more than 10 car lengths to stop). .But twice that distance if the road is wet..or 340 feet.
A good way to estimate distance to stay back is keep away by 3 feet for every 1 mph of your speed. At 35 mph (35 x 3 feet =105 feet or @7 car lengths!
How far is 170 feet? Telephone poles along most local road are separated by 120 feet. Image a distance of about one and one-half (1 1/2) telephone poles to stop your car at 45 mph on a dry road —and almost 3 telephone poles on a wet road. In snow multiply the distanced by 10x!
Most roadways in suburban and non-superhighways are old cart paths or foot trails that grew into auto routes. In hilly terrane these roads curve and turn and rise and fall over the topography making visibility ahead uncertain.
Traffic engineers spend enormous amounts of energy and thought devising caution signs and speed signs for our local roads. Most roadways in country settings on Long Island as well as most other places have set speeds that have been established based on how far an operator can see ahead and how long it would take to stop. You must follow those speed limits for safe driving. Many of our local “back” roads are old cart paths with hills and sharp turns. The set speed limits in many places is 35 miles per hour…at that speed it takes and alert driver to 75feet to stop (from above) 105 feet, almost a full distance between electric poles and 7 car lengths!
Waiting at a Red Light. Never, never go ahead promptly when the light you are waiting for turns green. No matter who is behind you, beeping their horn, ignore them. Pause, look for speeders who are going to go through the red light and when the coast is clear and in full green…you can go ahead.
There are many many safety rules…but the main one is don’t be in a hurry behind the wheel..speed kills!
No comments:
Post a Comment