teen drivers
5 Irvine Students Die In Car Crash
Another headline involving young people dying in car crashes. This time 5 teens from Irvine.
According to the LA Times:
Police say the 17-year-old driver, Abdulrahman M. Alyahyan, a senior at high-achieving University High School, was speeding south in an Infiniti on Jamboree Road near Island Lagoon Drive when the car swerved out of control and struck a tree, the violence shearing it in two. What was left caught fire.
I can only imagine the pressure a young teen boy has to be cool and the thrill of having a lot of people in his car.
As a parent we can set limits on the amount of passengers we allow our kids to have in their car. We can talk to them a lot about car crashes.
Perhaps this boys parents did just that.
My heart goes out to these parents. I wish we could stop waking up to headlines like this as these are avoidable crashes.
Louis CK on Driving Safely
Driving safely just got great PR from Louis C.K.
A few nights ago I flipped on "Oh My God" HBO's Louis CK's Comedy Special. My ears really perked up when he started talking about how when we get in the car "a time when we should be having compassion for our fellow humans..." it is basically a time when we are our most hostile.
Who knew Louis CK and Fix The Toaster would share passions. Of course his stance was one of humor but I loved it. I particularly liked hearing the audience get quiet and I could hear the gears in their heads clicking as they thought about what he was saying.
Interesting bit, watch it here.
[youtube=http://youtu.be/kqZskUjcAhY]
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.
The University of Iowa
It only takes 2 seconds for us to begin "breaking down" when we take our eyes away from the road. Texts take 4 seconds.
The University of Iowa has a driving simulator that shows us just how we perform when we become distracted.
[youtube=http://youtu.be/IIWR_1W_zwo]
5 Teens Die in a Car Crash
5 more teens lost their lives due to a car crash.
According to WLOX they ran a stop sign. A preventable crash.
Very sad for all of the families who lost their children in this horrific car crash.
The Way We Talk About Car Crashes
I just read about a terrible accident in Ohio which claimed the lives of three young girls. In the article I read it said that the truck los control and hit a tree.
I realize that when the article was published, perhaps, evidence was not conclusive and so facts were not known. But I think it is dangerous territory we wade into when we say things like, "the car lost control." A more recent report from the Huffington Post says that speeding from the young driver was involved.
I cringe when local newscasters talk about 3 car pileups that will soon be cleared. In fact, I appreciate 91.5 FM's for that fact that their morning on air personality Dennis Bartel will note that he hopes the people are OK who are in the accidents. He is the only news figure in LA I have heard regularly acknowledge that there are people inside the "piled up" cars that prove to inconvenience us so much.
Cars do not lose control.
We have lost control.
We are driving around powerful, heavy, dangerous modern inventions that we are killing each other with.
That is the way the car should be talked about right now.
I wonder what the inventor of the car, Mr. Benz, would think if he knew how many people now die daily in cars?
What Do a 1964 Rambler and a Minivan Have in Common? Me.
Let me explain my history with cars. A friends grandpa let me drive his car while sitting on his lap when I was probably 10. It was somewhere in rural Texas.
At 14 I lived in South Dakota and that is the age when you can start driving by yourself. None of my girlfriends were allowed to but some of the boys were.
The 3 times I've had very close calls were with young guys.
I learned how to drive. On a stick shift. My dad taught me in our Isuzu Trooper. I loved it and felt like a pretty cool girl to be driving a stick shift.
My parents bought me a used 1964 Rambler, its was green.
I was 16. Not only was it a stick shift, it was a "3 on a tree." I think I gave every man over 60 an instant boner driving that thing.
My parents were crazy fun nuts that way.
After the Rambler died, I got their old Isuzu Trooper.
After the Trooper, I bought my conservative uncles used Ford Taurus. It was automatic.
I loved that car. It was pretty boring and ugly but a smooth ride none the less.
After that, I got a used Volvo for my graduation from college present.
I drove it to LA with Iowa license plates. A lot of people honked at me. If you want to get honked at drive around LA with Iowa plates in a Volvo and have blonde hair.
You might as well have a sign that signs, "I'm a jerk, please honk at me" on your car.
I drove that for a long time. For so long I began to think, I really am a jerk. Or at least I must be driving like one.
Until finally I could afford to buy my own car.
I bought a used Jetta.
I bargained with the dealer, offering him a seat at a showing of the show I worked at if they'd lower the rate of the car. I was working for Playboy at the time. The guy didn't take me up on the offer. *crazy
My husband and I loved that little car. Zippy. (not in a speeding way, I've never been much of a speeder)
After the birth of my first we could no longer pick up my parents from the airport with all of us in the Jetta. We sold it and got a used Lexus. This was the beginning of my love of white cars.
I was a fancy lady for awhile.
Then I had another child.....
Then I had another child.
And here I am, driving a minivan. A Toyota Sienna. White. Because white is the safest color car you can drive. (that's why my love of white cars)
So see, I'm not just a mom behind a minivan. I've got a long relationship with cars.
I've always been more comfortable in the slow lane. I've always respected the power of the car, well accept for a few times, I'll write about that later.
I like cars. They all have their own personality. I like the smell of new car. And new car with leather seats. I like getting in a "hot" car.
I just don't like driving fast or dangerously.