Car safety

Car safety always has been and always will be a bit of a joke. There is no doubt that modern cars are way safer than even in the 80’s. But take that evolutionary scale and hold it up to a true measure of safety, and it will just be a thin line in the big picture.

Here’s why: No matter how much crash protection we put into these cars, we are ultimately just driving around in a two-ton box of steel and plastic, surrounded by a whole bunch of other idiots doing the same thing. If you define “Most Safest” as hiding in a concrete bunker where you won’t even trip and fall on a crack in the sidewalk, and “Least Safest” as, say, standing in front of a machine gun, then driving any car at 60mph down a road with another car coming at you at 60mph in the other lane, with only a yellow line on the pavement to keep you separated, is nearer the top of that safety scale than the bottom.

If we didn’t have cars, and somebody today invented the idea of individually-controlled automobiles (and trucks!) being driven around with people inside, we’d think that that someone was nuts!

I had a Pinto. It was a mess. I could watch the road pass by through the rot holes in the floor. It was uglier than I am and embarrassing to be seen in, yet it got me to work every day for three years. And as far as I can recall, it never exploded. Not once.

If it was uglier than you were, then you always looked good!

I agree with macfisto. If cars were invented yesterday, they would probably be banned.

I almost got hit head- on a couple of weekends ago. As I was approaching a bridge, the oncoming vehicle’s driver was rubber necking at the boats below in the water. He crossed the center line and was heading straight for me.

I stopped, looking for any options. At the last second, he looked up, swerved his vehicle, and missed me by inches.