"The Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria were much more capable…"
Yes, but only at the time of the Triumph’s accident and only when these sailboats are traveling with the winds in general and one still ran aground and broke apart near Haiti.
* The cost to diagnose and repair the safety feature or the car itself becomes unaffordable.
For many, the cost to repair ABS on their vehicle is unaffordable.
@Docnick:
Japan has twice the suicide rate as the US. The US is 28th in overall violent crime. England has nearly 3 times our violent crime rate per capita and wants to ban knives because of so many are killed in brutal stabbings.
@bscar2 Agree there are a number of ways to get killed. So, overall murder statistics are the best comparison. By that count, there used to be more murders in Detroit (when it had 1.2 million people) than there were in all of England (about 800), population about 40 million. If you ad all the suicides and murders in Japan and compare them to the US you will be in for a surprise.
My comments were about trying to prevent what kills people, and we have come almost as far as we can in car safety without tackling driver behavior. Getting rid of handguns is a next opportunity.
Violent crime will always be with us; reducing the murder rate is the big challenge. The violent crime incidence in Canada and the US is identical, but the murder rate in the US is at least 3 times that of Canada’s; the difference being mostly explained by the relative absence of handguns in Canada. It takes a lot more effort to knife someone to death.
Progressive, I know, has one of those tracking devices that they claim will help reduce insurance rates. I don’t know if Allstate has one too, or not, but I think there is another insurance company that does.
To me, it’s not so much that the cars are too safe as it is that they are too easy to drive. The amount of mental effort required to drive a car under normal circumstances is now so low that drivers are unprepared when they need to react quickly.
I’ve often thought that rather than continually increasing “classroom” drivers’ ed. training requirements (which teens will mostly sleep through and/or ignore, anyway), states should make something like a skid car or slick track a mandatory part of the licensing requirement. To me, that sort of experience makes for a nice, safe way of not only teaching drivers how to maintain control of a car when things go wrong, but also serves as a demonstration that things CAN indeed go wrong…even with all the modern safety features.
Incidentally, Finland, which boasts some of the best drivers in the world, requires slick track training in order to get a driver’s license.
One reason I dont carry a gun,oppurtunity.My mind works in funny ways,guess I’m a bit schiczoid.And another thing about guns and knives if I fool around witha gun long enough it will go off and If I play a knife very long I’ll get cut.I guess there are too many people that take driving for granted.One of my former bosses and me were having a discussion about gun safety one day,I said my guns are always unloaded and I treat them as if they were loaded,my boss disagreed ,he said his guns were always loaded and he knew they were loaded(what an ego).But anyone who is confident and safe with a gun let them carry( Good ol’ Virginny passed a law were its legal to conceal carry a pistol into a bar{gas on the fire if you ask me)-Kevin
When I drove my 68 camaro every day it kept me on my toes, no power steering, no power brakes, and I drove it like a maniac, kids now a days couldnt handle that car. One time I was hopped up on goofballs, driving down a mountain pass going 110, and I didn’t downshift like you should, which I knew better, well anyway I got the scare of my life as when I finally got it stopped there was smoke rolling from all 4 wheels, It taught me a lesson I will never forget, Downshift.
Cars today give you a false sense of security, you knew if you crashed the 68 camaro you would probably die. You drove accordingly. You also don’t pop goofballs when you drive.
Flo and Progressive lost me recently. After 15 years with that insurer I had an independent agent cut my insurance cost in half with a policy that increased most of the benefits. All those television ads are costly and guess who pays Flo and the studio?
I know of at least 2 body shops in Southern NH that won’t deal with Geico or Progressive. If you have either of those insurance companies you’ll have to find another body shop.
Why don`t they want to deal with Geico or Progressive?
On topic: Cars are not too safe. The most dangerous part of the car is the loose nut behind the wheel.
Why don`t they want to deal with Geico or Progressive?
Because they try to nickle and dime the body shop owner - that it’s NOT worth their time. One example was this car was…and they had to replace a fender. Geico would NOT authorize them to use a new fender. The closest used fender they could find was over 1500 miles away and would take over a week to get there. It’s things like that why some body shops don’t want to deal with them.
I am fully in favor of all safety equipment being AVAILABLE to the purchasing consumer, to purchase, or not purchase, as s/he sees fit, allowing market forces determine the optimal level of safety.
I am vociferously opposed to MANDATED safety devices, on the grounds that I am subsidizing others lassitude. For example, there was a post on the main site about mandated backup cameras, and how the gov’t ought to be sued to force the mandate. An appaling number of children get backed over, and that was justification.
Now, I can understand how ABS and such can be justified, on the grounds that not everybody’s sufficiently skilled, but ANYBODY can, and should, do a walk-around prior to backing in an environment with KNOWN small children present. These drivers committed negligent homicide by vehicle–harsh but true–and I’ll be gosh darned if I see any reason why I ought to subsidize somebody else’s negligence.
I have no direct experience with GEICO but it sounds like the are the same crooks as Progressive. Fortunately my state has laws that foil their scams. Of course they still try.
Progressives stupid commercials turned me off,at least Geico has a cute one every so often,wish they would spend the money on reducing the rates(remember when the shoe company who hocked very expensive athletic shoes got called to task for paying well off athletes extreme amounts of money to endorse their products?)-Kevin { RE bscar2}
remember when the shoe company who hocked very expensive athletic shoes got called to task for paying well off athletes extreme amounts of money to endorse their products
Didn’t stop them…they still do it. Most of your high-end athletes get a MOST of their money from endorsements.
Nike pays
Tiger Woods - $40 million - annually
Michael Jordan - $60 million - annually
Serena Williams - $40 million over 5 years
And the list goes on.
Back to topic ;
YES, cars are too safe.
Proliferating the ill conceived notion that ‘‘the car will protect me if I screw up’’ and all the lack of proper operator skills that go hand in hand with that mindset.
Too few are even attempting to learn how to operate the machine and over-relying on technology to babysit their bad driving.
I’m teaching a 14 year old now, a little at a time, and I haven’t even mentioned the antilock brakes or airbags…or even the 4x4 yet, because I want her to learn the machine first.
… and my coffee is too hot, and my beer is too cold, and my food tastes too good, and my bed is too comfortable. (yawn)
Safety is a state of mind, and none of those innovations keep you from teaching your 14-year-old some common sense, and not to rely on those safety features.
Back when I was a kid, we didn’t get eggs for breakfast. We got a bag of broken glass, and we liked it.
“We got a bag of broken glass, and we liked it.” Gotta be hard on the teeth, remembering no seat belts and a steel dash, and friends missing teeth, so far I am on board with many safety improvements, I do not know them all, the backup camera quite an added expense but there are always the stories of people that back up over their own kids.
I think we’ve reached a point of diminishing returns. Traffic fatalities are now 1/16 of what they were in the 50s prior to all those safety items. Overall accident rate has remained the same, however.
It’s time to work on driving skill improvement. Since everyone drives, we can’t expect everyone to become a really good driver, but we can make everyone a SAFE driver.
I don’t object to side airbags and improved visibility, as well as traction control and ABS. Let’s leave it at that.
Ralph Nader must have mixed feeling that after all his crusading, cars are infinitely more safe, but the drivers are as reckless as ever. Crusaders seldom understand human nature. Any 19th century psychologist could have told Karl Marx that Communism had its own seeds of destruction in it, and would never work effectively.
@Mike,thanks-but the driver part of the equation needs to improve-Kevin