Yes we must realize that some of these articles are written by journalists or public information professionals. I found it refreshing that the Honda CEO is taking a 20% pay cut because of the issue and the directors are taking a 10% cut. Just for three months and nothing like falling on the sword, but still shows some acceptance of responsibility. A good example for others to follow-I hope it catches on. Not just for car manufacturers but others too like bankers, senators and agency directors. Presidents, Vice Presidents? Not that the money matters at all, its just the idea that “the buck stops here”.
This study concluded that safety features encourage more aggressive driving that offsets the potential benefit:
http://www.purdue.edu/uns/html4ever/2006/060927ManneringOffset.html
@Bing–I am an Indiana University graduate and really don’t know any faculty at Purdue. I taught at another state university. I have done probit analyses and am anxious to look at the paper.
Back in the early 1970s, I had a friend and fellow graduate student that stayed on at IU after finishing his doctorate on a research team funded by the NHTSA. The team investigated auto accidents to see if a mechanical failure in the vehicle may have been the cause of the accident. In most of the cases this team investigated, the cause was driver error. This study was done more than 40 years ago before the days of antilock brakes.
While it is commendable that strides have made in making vehicles safer, it is just as important that steps are taken to give more stringent tests to obtain a driver’s license. We need safer drivers as well as safer vehicles.
" We need safer drivers as well as safer vehicles. "
+1
Please allow me to share a couple of my experiences over the past few months.
One day, I was exiting from the parking lot of my local post office, and while admittedly the traffic patterns in that lot are a bit unusual, they are not that difficult to understand.
As I was exiting from one of the parking areas, an older woman who was driving perpendicular to my path stopped, rolled down her window, pointed frantically at a sign, and shouted, “One way! Do not enter!”.
However, the “One Way…Do Not Enter” sign to which she pointed was facing her, and she was the one driving the wrong way in the parking lot. Apparently this was just too complex a concept for her to figure out in its entirety.
A couple of months ago, I encountered a car stopped–dead–on a 2 lane road, adjacent to a NJ Transit commuter bus that was sitting on the shoulder, with no lights lit up or flashing.
I thought that perhaps there was an obstacle of some kind that the car driver was trying to avoid–such as perhaps some ducks or geese crossing the road, and as a result, I did not honk my horn right away.
After a minute or so, with traffic gathering behind me, I finally did honk my horn. The driver of the stopped vehicle opened his door, looked back at me, and shouted, “You’re not allowed to pass a bus, idiot”. Somehow this…genius…had conflated the regulation banning the passing of a school bus with flashing warning lights to mean that you can’t pass a commuter bus that is sitting on the shoulder of the road, with no lights whatsoever.
After a prolonged chorus of horns, the guy in front of me finally moved, but–more than likely–he still doesn’t understand the difference between not passing a school bus displaying warning lights, and passing a commuter bus that had probably broken down on the shoulder of the road.
So…those two people have the same driving privileges as people with fully-functioning brains.
Just imagine how capable they would be in a high-speed situation where they had to make a split-second decision that directly impacted the safety of other people
Isn’t that thought…comforting?
I would like to have the data from the late 1950s through the early 1970s of accident data involving the VW Beetle and compare this data with accident data from accidents of Chevrolets, Fords, and Plymouths. When one drove a VW Beetle, one was certainly aware of its limitations. The VWs certainly lacked acceleration, were wind sensitive, and had swing type rear axles which made them susceptible to a roll-over. I would guess that the accident rate for these VW Beetles might have been less than that for standard cars.
More recently, in the mid 1990s,our son was on an internship as a college sophomore in Appalachian country in southeast Kentucky. While he was on the internship, we had a student killed in an accident when a 15 passenger Ford E-350 van rolled over in Arizona. Our son was driving the same E-350 15 passenger vans on his internship with young children on board. I asked my son about the safety of these vans. He said that if one realized that they drove differently with cars and drove them with safety in mind, there was no problem. When we were on a break, we visited him and I rode with him as he transported children on really treacherous mountain roads. He wouldn’t even start the engine unless every child was searing the seat belt. I felt perfectly safe as he negotiated the mountain roads.
@VDCdriver, Having Worked At A Small Airport While In High School And Taking Advantage Of Flying Lessons With Some Solo Airplane Time Under My Belt, I Have Always Been Amazed How Easy It Is To Qualify As Driver Of A One Or Two Ton Automobile In 2-Dimenensions. Contrast With That How Much More Careful The FAA Is To Issue Even A Student Pilot License For A 3/4 Ton Vehicle Operating In 3 Dimensions. I Have Seen Some Folks Try For Years To Earn A Student Pilot License, But Obtain A Driver’s License In Minutes.
And the roads would be even safer if the worst drivers were allowed to drive in only one dimension instead of two.
As for obtaining driver’s licenses . . .
Years ago, when I moved to California, I had to take the written test, get a learner’s permit, then take the driving test
Anyways . . . I obtained a copy of the California driver’s handbook. Even though I had a license in Germany, and a license in Pennsylvania, I wished to start fresh, so to speak. I read the book, took the practice exam, then scheduled the written test.
When I was there, I noticed that the exam wasn’t that difficult, provided you had read the book, and provided you weren’t high on crack when you read the book
I turned in my exam to be graded, and I easily passed
What I saw going on around me was particularly disturbing. I saw people hand in exams with failing scores. yet the DMV clerks decided to help them out. Right in front of everybody’s eyes, the clerks, blatantly changed a few incorrect answers to the correct ones, so that the people would pass. In one particularly outrageous instance, the clerk, didn’t even change the incorrect answers. She just crossed out the failing score, and wrote a passing score right next to it!
I also saw an instance where somebody taking the written test got somebody else to actually take the test for them! The dmv clerks saw this and did nothing
Out in the parking lot, I saw more humorous behaviour. The people that had just gotten their learner’s permits got into their cars and drove off by themselves, without a licensed driver in the passenger’s seat
And when I showed up a few weeks later to take my driving test, I saw people with learner’s permits pull up to the testing area alone, without anybody in the passenger’s seat. The driving test administrators saw all of this and were unphased. At one point, somebody failed the driving test. The dmv guy got out, and the guy who failed just drove off, by himself
That’s It!
I was at the DMV/SOS and someone had failed their written exam. The consequences? Discuss the correct answers, look through the booklet, retake the test . . . voila! Good to go! Get the kids off the street!
Then we find out many of these folks don’t have insurance . . .
CSA
I’ve been rearended a few times by guys without insurance
Thankfully, each time it’s been very minor
Each time, the guy said “I don’t have insurance. I’ll give you my number. Call me and I’ll have my buddy take care of the damage.”
Just to be polite, I did take the number, but I never bothered to call. There’s no way I’m dropping off my car at some place, for a probably off the books, perhaps hack job, repair. The guys might hold my car hostage, or try to get ME to pay for the repair. No thank you
If I didn’t Know Better I’d Think That The Auto Registration And Driver’s License BS Was Just Another Form Of Tax Revenue. Silly Me.
CSA
Hmmm. In Minnesota that would be falsification of a public document and you can get 7 years for that. Maybe people actually do get the government they deserve.
As far as VW bug safety, I only had one accident in it, under powered as it was, but that one accident did it in. I think I was 19, In town, at night, on a thru street, think I was going maybe 20-25 since I had just turned onto that street. Car came barreling through the intersection on my left. I immediately put the clutch and brake through the floor and at the same time turned to the right to try and avoid or minimize the hit. Don’t know when he braked but pushed me up on the corner lot. Missed the tree and missed the house but the car was shot. Looking back, there was absolutely no way to avoid it, regardless if I had double the power or braking since the intersection was on a rise and you could never see the lights in time. I always wear my seat belt, but the 59 didn’t have any. I do believe though that if I would have had a belt on, instead of sliding across the seat and just getting my leg banged up, that I would have had some internal injuries.
“… I saw people with learner’s permits pull up to the testing area alone, without anybody in the driver’s seat.”
Now that I’d like to have seen. ;-]
I Lived Through Hundreds Of Thousands Of Miles In My 64 Sea Blue Bug And My Clementine Orange 71 Super Beetle. The rear swing-axle and extremely poor lighting of the 64 made me a more careful driver, as did the front fuel tank on both vehicles. A Man’s Got To Do What A Man’s Got To Do. Helps To Know One’s Limitations. I Did Travel Pretty Fast Under The Right Conditions, Though.
CSA
@insightful
You got me there, partner
Yeah, the guy with the learner’s permit pulled up to the testing area alone, without anybody in the passenger’s seat
I guess I need a common sense checker, in addition to the grammar- and spell checker
LOL
I became a much safer driver when my son (my first) was born.
Then my kids went off on their own… and a probably lost some of it.
Now I’m retired and I’m safer because, well, I no longer have to BE anywhere! But I’m not one of those old people that accelerates from zero to 40 in 12 minutes and never exceeds 40… no matter the speed limit. I accelerate with gusto and cruise with the flow of traffic.
I’m starting to think that airbag Recall is a load of cxxp. My daughter has an '05 Mustang which is of a type mentioned by the NHTSA. By her VIN per Ford the car is not covered and she’s worried anyway…
It’s stated cars in certain states along the Gulf of Mexico are covered because of high humidity and the number batted about is 60. It’s quite common for many areas nowhere near the Gulf to have dewpoints far higher than 60; including where both my daughter and I live.
It could be that there is going to be some ruckus over who, what, and where is covered and rightfully so.
Politics at its finest yet again… 
Politics? No. CYA? Yeah, I think so. The auto manufacturers are trying to make sure that they are liable for as few deaths and injuries as they can practically allow. At least two of them (Toyota and GM) suggested that there be no passengers in the front until the recall fix is implemented. But that still leaves the drivers exposed to the risk of death or severe injury if the airbag deploys. Why didn’t they offer loaners to all the drivers if they are so concerned about passenger safety? It’s a rhetorical question; no need to answer what we all know is true.
My personal impression is that it’s a real issue being blown way out of proportion by lawyers, the media, and politicians… not necessarily in that order.