Excessively speeding kills people.
If you like to speed and tailgate just do it on a track. Or do it to your own mother and family. But don't do it to anyone else's.
It's fucking rude and dangerous.
tailgating
Tailgating Needs To Become As Hot As Texting
You've stopped texting and driving, that's great.
Now how about tailgating? Do you do that? Really?
Does your spouse do it, boyfriend, friend, etc.? Speak up.
Tailgating kills far too many people.
Tailgating does not make you a bad ass. That's a fact. Check that.
Here are some events I deem worth of being deemed bad ass:
Being nice even when someone else is having a bad day and not being nice to you.
Giving up drinking.
Mountain biking.
Doing something you are afraid of but doing it anyways.
These are just a few examples.
Driving your car right behind human beings too close, so close, that if they were to stop, you would hit them and possibly kill them, just downright is awful.
Too many of these fatal crashes are preventable.
It's time that tailgating takes on the same stigma that texting is getting.
Do you see a lot of people tailgating? I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.
Mind The Gap(s)
Texting and driving is receiving a lot of attention due to AT&T leading the charge there with their wonderful anti-texting campaign.
It's great that texting is receiving this attention.
I remember a few years ago Oprah had a big lead up about how she was going to announce something huge in regards to car crashes and she announced her make your car a No Phone Zone.
I remember exhaling with some disappointment.
Now, I love Oprah like almost everyone else.
But I was waiting on baited breath for her to bring to the spotlight that car crashes, at least around 80% of them could be prevented, if we would choose to drive differently. Not only by not using our phones but by not tailgating, not excessively speeding, possibly lowering the speed limits, etc.
I understand that using your phone is accounting for a lot of crashes but tailgating actually surpasses these numbers. What about excessive speeding? How about infrastructure? How about lowering speed limits? Our roads are really a war zone.
I was hoping she was going to expose the whole, complex (yet not really that complex) situation.
Of course, I applaud her shining light on the distracted driving epidemic, I merely think that there are other issues behind the enormous amount of lives lost on our roads, globally and here in America.
Of course I do admire her greatly I was just hoping she would be the one to say, something is really wrong here.
This is an interesting video that talks about how more people die from other people tailgating.
It makes me ill when people tailgate me on the freeway. It's a habit far too many people do. All I can think about is how long it took that person's mother to carry them in their womb and them labor them into life and they are riding too close for a matter of measly minutes.
Our roads need a major overhaul and the spotlight has yet to be put on the subject.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eUgwVV5WJE
Tailgating is a Leading Cause of Car Crashes
Tailgating is a leading cause of car crashes. [youtube=http://youtu.be/7eUgwVV5WJE]
With a lot of talk about not using your phone while driving I want to shine spotlight on tailgating. It is something people do that angers me to my core. When you tailgate you are basically neglecting to honor the lives in front of you. Because if those people have to stop suddenly you will more then likely hit them.
If you are traveling at high speeds you will likely severly injure or kill them.
When you are being tailgated remain calm, according to Wiki you are supposed to pull to the right and let someone pass you.
Unfortunately this happens to me in the right hand lane of a freeway that most people are going 75 MPH on. It makes for a horribly dangerous situation and that is why a tow truck sits at the top of the highway, just waiting.
It's sickening.
Where are you going to that you feel it necessary to threaten lives with your vehicle?
There is so much public outrage over the bombing that just happened in Boston and the use of handguns. Yet, car crashes surpass these death tolls by a lot.
Yet we are not outraged.
We seem to have taken a "ah shucks, that's just fate" attitude towards it.
Tailgating is highly aggressive. I suggest talking to your family about respecting human lives while we drive and leaving space.
Stay safe on the roads.
We Are a Guest Blogger for Mama's Health Today
Mama's Health is a great site that is dedicated to providing clear, simple, easy to understand information about health. They have a great project called the Precious Preemie Project in which people can make hats for preemies in the hospital.
[youtube=http://youtu.be/AXpg0lT4i7k]
I was lucky enough to meet the creators one sunny SoCal day. The lovely ladies of Mama's Health have bee so supportive of Fix The Toaster and they kindly let us write a guest blog for them today. Here it is!
Car Crashes Are The #1 Cause of Death To Kids Ages 1-12
Car crashes are the singular biggest event claiming the lives of our youth.
Car crashes are the #1 KILLER of American kids ages 1-12.
We all go out while pregnant and make sure we invest in the best car seat, a lot of us go to the local firehouse and have them properly install it. Then we labor for hours, sometimes days and we finally drive our precious newborn home as safely as possible.
If only we always drove home like we do on that drive.
As a mother I of course am trying to encourage other mothers and fathers to help spread the word. Our children are dying in mostly preventable crashes.
We need to slow down, get off our phones, not tailgate and drive with more care.
Keeping our kids safe goes beyond the car seat. It frustrates me that the media focuses on freak accidents and we all start to live in fear of events we truly can not predict. But these car crashes, a lot, can be avoided.
Talk about tailgating and using your phone at the dinner table. It is important.
Humans Are Mostly Good, Tailgating is Really Bad, So Why Are People Doing It?
Do you tailgate?
You shouldn't.
It's dangerous. Really, really dangerous. If the person in front of you isn't going fast enough pass them but better yet relax.
Especially on the freeway when you are driving at high speed where injuries are a lot greater, due to speed. Can you imagine crashing at 65MPH or 80MPH? The thought horrifies me.
Women, on average, labor 18-24 HOURS with their first child. Your arriving 10 minutes faster to a destination or even 60 minutes faster is not worth compromising your life or someone else's.
If a true accident were to occur and the person in front of you had to quickly stop and you did not leave enough room and you hit them that would be a crash.
You would seriously injure, perhaps kill someone and you could have avoided it.
Tailgating Kills. Are You a Killer?
in Take Action
According to Wikipedia: Approximately one third of rear-end collisions involve tailgating.
I live in a place that requires me to go down a huge hill, basically a mountain. It's a freeway and it's surprisingly uncongested for LA.
I have to stay in the right hand lane as the freeway I need requires one to exit on that side.
This leads a bunch of people in the right hand lane, the slow lane, all going down a mountain on a freeway. Fast.
I am comfortable going between 60-65. I'm pretty sure the speed limit is 65.
You would not know it from the cars whizzing by me. Fine let them whiz. I can't control them. But what really rattles me is when someone gets behind me and tails me on this freeway. I become stuck.
I need to exit so I need to stay in that lane. They say the safest thing to do is you are being tailed is to let the person pass you. But it would be unsafe for me to get over and then get back over again.
I believe that if you are tailgating you are saying F#$% you to the lives in front of you. Because if an incident occurs where the car in front of you has to stop, you will, 100% hit them. And if you are going down a freeway, downhill, at 70 miles per hour you will really hurt the lives in front of you and possibly many more from the sadness they would feel at the loss of life.
I think even the tailgater would probably suffer huge remorse from killing someone.
Remember the 3 second rule from drivers ed? Why aren't we adhering to it? My cousin was in a crash here on the LA freeways this year and she said it was incredibly frightening seeing all of the cars scramble to stop.
Since I have to go on this freeway a lot I've wanted to place a bumper sticker on my car, much to my husband's horror. I bought one that says:
Tailgating Kills, Please Leave Space
I like this one someone home made.
I haven't had the cajones to put it on my car but I think I might start making my own revolving bumper stickers. I want people to really get where I'm coming from.
Do you tailgate? Is it a problem in your area?
The faster we go the longer it takes to stop.
I don't want to crash at 70 MPH, do you? Have you ever been hit at 20MPH and said, "Wow, that hurt?" Imagine crashing at 50, 60? Imagine your kids crashing at that speed.
Don't we want to stop in time?
Do you value life enough to leave space? Daily I feel as if I'm surrounded by heartless, angry people on the roads, but I believe they just have not connected the dots yet. Or we as a society have forgotten the very basics.