Termyn8or
Posts: 18681
Joined: 11/12/2005
Status: offline
|
"I've been driving for 23 years and have had 2 accidents- both over 22 years ago, neither resulting in any injuries. One was my fault, the other could not be avoided. "
Good. I'm sorry for getting so personal there. It was meant more generally, it came out a bit wrong. It's just that I've seen so many assholes out there it bothers me.
I have been lawless for a long time. Really, I don't care what "they" say. Never have, but there is something more. I'm glad that you haven't been in an accident for a long time, and I would attribute that to being conscientious on the road. So I formally apologize for what seemed like a personal attack. What I am at odds with is a different thing. You seemed to take the opposing position.
Legal mumbo jumbo means nothing to me, but the rules of the road are not mumbo jumbo. There is a set pattern, who has the right of way and who does not. Sometimes that is determined by traffic lights. I have seen people blow through red lights at 60MPH in a 35MPH zone. I have seen people do things that put hair on my chest, curled it and then took it off in one fell swoop.
Now get this, I know everyone thinks this, but I am an expert driver. I have been for a long time, because I come from a car family. I was driving at 13, which was too young I know. By the time I was 15 I had a car that had a passing gear at 105MPH. A PASSING GEAR at that speed. My cousin had a car that accelerated so fast that it ripped the bolts out of the front seats. (modified suspension). I can drive a car sideways if it can maintain a rear wheelspin on a winding road. Don't believe me I can show you. Even the girls in the family learned to drive on stickshifts.
Out on the farm I used to pop wheelies on the tractors. I had one of those Bulldogs that once we got that pesky governor out of the way would do 50MPH, and you are sitting about four inches from the ground. But almost all the wild shit I did, I did alone, except for Mikey. He was as wild as I, and hell we were both immortal at the time. But this is out on country roads with noone else around. There is a time and place, and in the city or with any traffic is NOT the time and place.
When I was alone I did my craziest. Once in a while with others but really only where there were no people. Of course this helps if one does not want a ticket. If I had gotten caught doing 105 in a 55 there is no lawyer who could've gotten me out of it. But I made SURE. At the time I didn't care about a ticket, I cared about lawsuits.
Now I sit back in the seat. I do not drive close to the wheel, I drive like they teach cops to drive. That means that I can't see the light unless I stop a few feet short, thus the only time I have ever run a redlight. The oncoming traffic got a left turn arrow plus green, my side had to wait. I had a carful of people and when I saw the traffic move, I went. There is no excuse, I was in the worng. Nothing happened, but it could've. I just wasn't paying attention and it happened, and there is no excuse. If something would've happened that would've and should've been my problem. I admit it. I was lucky.
One example of this was my last accident, in January 1989. I hit a much smaller car on the highway. It was during the 55MPH years but I was only doing 35 because the weather was bad. All the details are relevant but we don't have all day. I was on my way to work and there was an accident up ahead. I saw a cloud. I attempted ot slow down but I was on ice, and up until then I had no way of knowing. I learned how to drive that day, once I saw kids in the car I hit. Thank whatever that they weren't hurt.
So 1989, I guess within a year for wrecks. Cool. I was 29 at the time.
Now since you don't seem to wreck cars, I assume you stop at red lights. As such I figure you probably go at green lights. Not stale greens or yellows, but real green lights. I try to time myself to the lights, it saves gas and brake pads, and most of my cars have been gas guzzlers.
When you go at a green light you expect the people who have the red light to stop. I am only alive today because one day I dropped my cigarette. I was at an intersection waiting for it to change and I dropped the smoke. I stayed put and retrieved it from the floor and was about to proceed through my green light, and a truck came barrelling across, and I mean a BIG truck, not some hibily pickup. A semi. I would have been dead for sure.
Again. sorry to get on your case personally about this, but I don't think there should be cameras at intersections reporting our actions to generate revenue. I think the cameras should be equipped with a killer laser or particle beam and just vaporize people who run red lights. That one incident, well maybe I would have been vaporized, so what. Afterward I wouldn't care.
I changed, and it scares me thinking about what might have happened. All my stunts and shit, most people would shit their pants. I think a few did. But I warned them. That's the old days and the old days are over. My reflexes are still decent, but the fact is there are simply too many cars on the road to do what I used to do. It's not like it used to be. This is all a big mess, and breaking the rules is a real problem.
If you abide by the rules the other person lives, if they abide by the rules you live. Deal ? It has nothing to do with traffic code or insurance or anything. We are expected to live among one another and that is what it is all about.
I haven't said enough but I've said too much.
T^T
|
RE: Red Light Camera footage - 
Profile
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread