Sharing a thought might save someone?

[Duke]

I've read thousands (literally thousands) of dollars worth of books on investing in property and shares. I buy them knowing that if I get just one good sentence out of the entire book it can make me, or save me, tens of thousands of dollars. Sometimes it's just one small word of advice that makes all the difference... And so, with that in mind...

I witnessed an accident last night - made me think about a few things;
2 young fella's in a table top ute lost control 1/2 way through a corner. They did a 180 into the gutter which flipped the ute into the air and then it slammed into a light pole. The rear of the ute was torn off the chassis and flew off onto the road and the impact was dead centre in the middle of the petrol tank, located just 60cm behind the driver.

The ute bent around the pole and then, completely airbourne, spun off to do another 180 with the contents of the petrol tank spewing out and splashing down all over the vehicle and surrounding area, coming to rest on the nature strip.

Amazingly the two 18 yr olds got out of the car immediately. The passenger stood next to the car and didn't move whilst the driver ran, with very wobbly legs, onto the road and started yelling "where am I? - what happened?".

I pulled him off the road and sat him down. He gathered himself a little and then tried to explain that he'd been cut off and forced into the spin by another car. Unfortunately for him this just isn't possible and the skid marks indicate a very long sideways slide.

• Excessive speeding caused this crash
  Lack of ability to handle a slide contributed
  Pure good fortune saved his life
  Pure good fortune meant no one else got hurt or killed
  They were on their way to a party and were rushing to get there
  The only person who believed his story about being cut off, was him.
  His brother showed up and was very peeved at the waste of money spent on the ute - he very nearly lost his brother, he didn't even think of that.
  Perhaps just 10k's slower and nothing would've happened, not worth it to get to a party so you start drinking faster.

You don't have to be young fella to get into trouble like this but maybe someone might read this and maybe they might slow down a tad and maybe that might save their life - you never know how much one sentence or word of advice can save you.

**note** this isn't intended to be a "holier than thou" lecture, I'm just sharing and hopefully haven't offended anyone. Cheers.

[Turboconvert]

yes, I agree. Better getting there late and safe then never! If people just thought about the conseqences of their actions when driving a little more......

[Melchior3]

Had a similar experience myself, on the way to a party, driver lost it in the wet (way over the speed limit). All ok, but the car was wrecked and a lesson was learnt.

[stera]

Originally Posted by uteaddict

yes, I agree. Better getting there late and safe then never! If people just thought about the conseqences of their actions when driving a little more......

In response to this its the 'invincibility' factor, the wont happen to me that, I believe most people have, until 'it' or something that enlightens you occurs and makes you think / reflect.

Sadly, Im sure we all know somebody that constantly speeds, drag races, doesnt wear seat belts... Some have been fined, etc, some learn, some dont!

I dont know the answer, but I know that a little bit of thought goes a long way!

[gz1]

Good post. This is one of the cases where "speed does kill". How far over the speed limit would you estimate he was doing?. By the sound of it quite a bit to have that sort of outcome.

Now you think you can post some of those good sentences from the investment books?

[vztrt]

While were sharing I think the following story is one to think about.

Mid last year was going to meet up with some friends. Had a friends mum drive us to the poolhall/club as we were going to drink. Anyway we were waiting at the lights turing left when we take off next to a clean SV6 ute. He took of a little quickly (and was noted by my friends mom) and it was a bit wet and next thing the ute slid out. Looks like he paniced and hit the brake and spun the car onto the divider and slid the car through the grass into a pole on the passenger side smashing the passenger's window. Anyway we stop to see if they're alright and the driver was fine but hi girlfriend was screaming as she had one of her fingers cut off.
We spend about 30 mins looking for the finger on the grass until they eventually found it lying in the car. Hopefully the guy learnt something that night, but I'm sure if his girlfriend is still with him, she'll bring him back into line if he tries anything like that again.

[Duke]

gz1 - Far too many lessons in investing to make a list mate, not all the lessons are goon ones either.
I reckon the fella would've been doing 80 or 90 around a 50k an hour bend. Hard to tell as there's no weight in the back of one of those tray tops and it probably wouldn't have taken much to push it too far.

vztrt - Depending on which finger she lost she may not ba able to tell him what she really thinks of his driving. Seriously though, it takes just a very little bit of bad luck or bad judgement to cause some serious damage to people or cars doesn't it. And the faster you're going when the error in judgement or bad luck occurs the greater the effect of the outcome.

I speed too, I'm no saint, but it sometimes you think about it and it makes you back off the peddle a bit.

I've never been anywhere that's so important I'd die to get there on time.

[troppo]

An excellent post mate, if there's one thing we can't be remineded of enough, it's keeping our wits about us while on the road.

I thought all the replies were equally as good until I got to this one

Originally Posted by gz1

Good post. This is one of the cases where "speed does kill". How far over the speed limit would you estimate he was doing?. By the sound of it quite a bit to have that sort of outcome.

_ ...someone had to go and drag that old furphy up.
Since no-one actually died and there is no grieving family to upset, can we please call this one as it is, namely driver error. Is it not the drivers responsibility to weigh up factors like sharpness of the bend, their own skill, condition of the vehicle and road conditions then act appropriately? Clearly the driver failed in his duty to do this by not lifting the right foot enough, and since the foot in question (which controls the speed) is in turn controlled by the driver, doesn't that make it 100% the fault of the driver?

[Turboconvert]

stera, unfortunatly you are right, the main reason why people dont think to much when driving is because of the 'invincible' factor as you just put it

[Phyber]

Thanks for a quality post, I'm not as bad a hoon as I was back in the old XF, thankfully it had very little power and I got it out of my system. I will hopefully think of this post if I'm feeling a heavy foot....happened the twice recently actually, same hill too, people either pulling out in front of me (damn holdens ;) ) or stopping suddenly. Glad I was driving smart at both times. I'm looking forward to my 25th when I magically get serious and my insurance will cost less too xD

But yes, great post and it's not lost on me. Cheers Duke.

[daniel_rossy]

Excellent post.
Im a newly licenced P Plater, this encourages me not to do anything illegal.
I have had my P's for two weeks and have not gone over the speed limit or done anything illegal as yet and planning on keeping it that way. Haven't gone over 4,000rpm (one off occasion) and all other times i keep it under 2,500. I plan on keeping my life and livelyhood and keeping my car at top condition for cruising. My mates are all like ahhh man clealy its 80 here! (in a 50 zone) im like na fcukk off im not speeding i plan to keep my licence and our lives.
Cheers

This may not be a valid thread to sticky (but i think it should be a sticky) but if it keeps it at the top and kids like me browse through it, it will give us a reflection on how dangerous these cars are.

[Airmon]

Its a good thought Duke, but I'm afraid it's basically a lost cause.
Threads like this pop up all the time and the message is always the same. The message is great but unfortunately the crowds that do this are not here on the forums.

And this idea you seem to have about P Platers feeling 'invincible' is utterly ridiculous. It's got nothing to do with feeling invincible, in fact its more the opposite. I used to be in a similar crowd and the feeling is simple, I'm here for a good time, not a long time. Whenever you're about to do something stupid thats all you need to remind yourself of.
Nothing anyone on here says is going to change that, it takes something dramatic like what Duke witnessed. Some get lucky, others don't, the fact is nothing you can do will change it.
I'm lucky, and now I spend my money enjoying my car rather then constantly repairing it (or others).


Daniel good on ya, but the left foot always wins, if you think things through I doubt you'll ever have a problem.

[Duke]

I'm heartened by support and comments on my post
We all have our own opinions on this type of thing. But if my post prompted even just one person to have that fleeting thought of taking care, or being more attentive on the road for just a few minutes, then I'm happy.

[Wally]

Common sense versus the super powers of youth. You don't really think you can drop a pearl of wisdom that will overcome gonads do you?

[EgoFG]

Originally Posted by gz1

This is one of the cases where "speed does kill".

Speed - yes, but the root cause was stupidity.