[Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
[Profile/Gallery]
, Fri, 16 Nov 2007 09:03:22
Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup
What's the difference between reckless and careless, if both result in death? This is really an artificial distinction. A careless person shows a reckless disregard for taking appropriate care in an inherently risky situation.
So should all of us go to jail if we've ever exceeded the speed limit? That's breaking the law, right? Or do you have to break the law "lots" or "badly"? Is 10 mph over the limit illegal? Certainly it is. Off to jail? How about 20 mph over? It depends on the circumstances, doesn't it? IMHO, 20 mph over in a school zone is an entirely different animal than 50 mph over on a deserted, divided highway in daylight. And 50 mph over (on a deserted highway, etc.) for 10 seconds is different than even 20 mph over for 2 hours.
Disclaimer: I'm not condoning what this Cannonball Run clown did. He would have had to maintain high speeds through congested areas to attain the time that he did. I just don't believe he should be villified, when our whole country has a serious safety problem.
So what is safety, as it relates to speed? Always going the speed limit? No, certainly not. Sometimes it's unsafe to drive the speed limit, and sometimes it's safe to exceed it.
The town I used to live in recently decreased its speed limits from 30 mph to 25 mph. Nothing about the streets changed. It didn't start raining every day of the year. All of the cars in town didn't suddenly develop worn out brakes. Now, it's unsafe to exceed 25, whereas before, it was unsafe to exceed 30. And all the while, people sail through the school zones without slowing down. I had never once seen anyone pulled over in a school zone, despite the fact that hardly anyone ever slowed down for them, BTW. So I doubt the change had anything to do with real safety. Maybe perceived safety, but not real safety.
My point is that our understanding of speed as it relates to safety is seriously deficient. Because speed limits must be posted as an absolute number, some people may think that this speed is automatically safe, and anything above that is unsafe. That leads some to drive by a large group of kids playing without slowing down, and to drive mile after mile in the left lane of the highway at preciesely the speed limit. Last year, a teenager drove his car down a nearby street, and there were kids in the street. Someone yelled, "slow down!" His yelled reply was that he was "goin' f'ing 30!" Doing the speed limit, he thought (except that the speed limit there was 25). Well, he's stupid. His rigid, concrete, teenaged thinking makes him unsafe.
This is not an issue that lends itself to concrete thinking. Safety involves many variables. Increased speed will confer increased risk in many (perhaps most) situations, but to say that in all situations, all the time, exceeding the speed limit is reckless (or for that matter that going the speed limit is always safe) is simply an unhelpful and simplistic point of view.
posted by 76.210.6...
, Thu, 15 Nov 2007 08:54:27, Fri, 16 Nov 2007 09:03:22, Sun, 18 Nov 2007 18:56:12
No Site Registration is Required to Post - Site Membership is optional (Member Features List), but helps to keep the site online
for all Saabers. If the site helps you, please consider helping the site by becoming a member.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
