Safety for Summer travel

[Guest sintid58]

1. Please always wear your seat belts. Last month while traveling in Wyoming on US Highway 20 I came upon a one vehicle accident. The vehicle was a 2004 Chevrolet four door one ton pickup with five occupants. Three were dead and laying on the highway and one was inside the pickup injured very badly. The fifth was uninjured. None of them were wearing seat belts and the cab of the pickup was almost entirely intact. If the people had stayed inside the cab they would almost certainly be alive today. The two and one half hours I spent on the scene waiting for police and ambulance and then for the police to do scene analysis was not very pleasant considering the bodies were in plain sight the entire time.

2. Never park on the shoulder of any highway for anything other than an emergency. I see people stopping to switch drivers all the time on the shoulders (this includes truck drivers)or to get things from the trunk of their cars or to adjust something on their car. This is very dangerous and people are killed every day doing this. There are off ramps, side roads and rest stops all along highways that are much safer places to stop for non emergency reasons.

3. Never under any circumstances stop on the left shoulder of any four lane highway. This is probably the most dangerous place to park there is. I have had people tell me they stopped there to change a tire because they were afraid they were going to ruin a rim. Rims are always replaceable your life and health are not.

4. Never drive alongside another car or truck for any longer than neccassary. Some states have now passed laws were you can be fined for staying in the left lane longer than necassary. I have people take two or three miles to pass me, this is simply not safe. I have never seen a cruise control you can't accelerate with your foot feet, then just let off and the cruise will return to the set speed. You don't know if the person you are beside is aware you are there, you may be in a blind spot. If it is a large truck and the pavement is very hot, tires can have weak sidewalls and blow out with no warning. Most large trucks carry 12,000 pound on the steering axle. This is 6,000 pound per tire and these tires have 100 psi when cold, although they are desigined for this any stray piece of steel of curbing of a tire could weaken the sidewall and cause a blow out. The explosion alone can cause catasrophc damage to a car alongside, not to mention the flying debris. I have had a two pound hammer left on the frame of my truck by a mechanic and ride for 2000 miles, if something like this would fall off into your car imagine the damage. Many states have road hazard laws and if debris is on the road and picked up by the person you are passing and it damages your vehicle it is considered to be a commmon road hazard with no fault to either vehicle. You are also cutting off your own chance to avoid accidents if something should happen by driving alongside another vehicle because you have not got as much room to manuver if need be.

5. If someone ahead of you starts to slow or brake you should immeadiatly assume something happening on the road in front of them and not try to pass until you are sure what is going on.

6. Road construction is ongoing in many states, please watch for workers. Many states close down one entire side of a freeway and make the other lane a two lane highway for 10 miles or so. Often with a 55 to 65 mph speed limit because there is no construction in these lanes. Please try to keep moving with traffic and do not tailgate or speed through these areas. Often tempers are on edge and driving 40 in a 65 Zone or tailgating will only aggravate the situation.

7. Avoid road rage. It always takes two to tango and if someone else shows sign of extreme anger ignore them and do what is necassary to get away from them as soon and as fast as possible with out making the situation worse.

8. Please try to be courteous to other drivers. Every one out there is in just as big of hurry as you are and being a bully or just plain rude to get there a few seconds earlier casuses many accidents and is a major cause of road rage.

9. Many states now have laws requiring you to move over into the other lane if there are emergency vehicles parked on the shoulder of a highway. If you don't you will be stopped and fined. Most truck drivers do this automatically. I have seen more than once what happens when someone changing a tire slips and falls in front of a speeding car or truck. The only state I don't recomend doing this is California. There always seems to be someone too rude to wait a few seconds until you are past the object on the shoulder. They usaually speed up and fly wildly pass you on the right getting even closer to the stopped vehicle and causing more of a hazard.

10. If you are on a two lane highway and someone pulls out to pass for goodness sake SLOW DOWN and let them pass. Don't increase the chances of a head on collision by holding your speed or speeding up.

11. If every one is passing you all the time for heavans sake check you speedometer. Not every one out there is speeding. I time every vehicle I drive to see how close the speedometer is to correct. Many are off 5 to 10 miles per hour. Most highways have green mile markers spaced one mile apart. At 60 mph it takes 60 seconds to go a mile at 75 mph it takes 48 seconds.

12. Learn to merge! Don't drive to the end of an on ramp and then look to see what is beside you. Then it is two late to try to adjust your speed to the traffic you should be merging with. Every day I have 6 or more people do this and then my 75 foot long truck is beside them and I can't pull over because there are one or two cars beside me they can't see. Not all states give the merging traffic any right of way and you are expexted to yield to traffic already on the highway. If I am pulling onto a freeway and I can see the highway from an overpass before turning onto the on ramp I try to gauge then the best way to merge into traffic.

13. That damn truck in front of you is propbably doing all he can to get up to speed or over the hill and if he could speed up he would. Also you may not be able to see the camper in front of him looking at the deer in the woods.

[Dave@Moon]

At least 1/2 the cars dropping kids off at my daughter's school have children under 12 riding in the front seat behind an air bag. Dozens of kids are killed every year by these things, and there isn't a car made that doesn't have a giant ugly sticker on the sun visor warning against this. The worst part is the 1 in 10 of these kids that aren't even belted in. (Both percentages double if a grandparent is driving, by the way!)

[Guest sintid58]

Yes I agree and another thing I see every day is young children not buckled in at all but walking around inside the car with their parents seemingly oblivious to the dangers. You have to wonder how much they love their kids. It seems like women drivers in big SUVs especially think they don't need to buckle their children in. The size of the car won't keep the kids inside in an accident.

A few years ago while driving in St. Louis I saw a man with his two very small children on I-70. He was driving a station wagon with clam shell tailgate. The tailgate was wide open and his two children were in the third seat with no seat belts on. I was driving at least 65 as he passed me.

Also if you drink and drive and I see you on the road I will turn you in. This includes anyone holding a beer or drink while they are driving. I personally have helped put 3 people in jail for this during the past 2 years and have no tolerance for even an after work drink on the way home. If I see you buy a case or can of beer, put it in your car and open it at the convenience store and then drive off I will call in your car and license number immediately.

[Guest imported_MrEarl]

Great words of caution. And I'll add one more. When it's raining, SLOW DOWN. I'm on the highway a lot and cannot believe how many people just continue to maintaion their speed and wild maneuvering when it starts raining. My son and drove from GA tp NJ and back this week. Saw 9 wrecks, most pretty bad. All but one was due to wet conditions and fog.

[Guest John Chapman]

One that makes me cringe...

Seeing folks with their feet propped up on the dash... right on top of the airbag. Wonder if they've ever imagined where their knees will go if the air bag ever deploys...

[Guest Skyking]

All this information above is basic.....I bet 75% of the people driving on highways today don't have any idea what damage they can cause by driving recklessly, and that's the scary part!

[Guest sintid58]

All the above information may be basic but if you had any idea how many times per DAY I saw each thing you would know why I posted it. I drove 171,000 miles last year in my job (you can add another 5000 miles of vacation and recreation travel not counting local driving) and the most common thing you see is rude driving by people. My biggest complaint is that I am working at my job while I drive and I am paid to put miles under my wheels. Some people seem to think that their vacation or groceries are the most important thing in the world, even more important that safety or common courtesy. I often wonder if I would go into some of these peoples places of business and act towards them the way the act towards me what they would think. But the main reason I post this is that everyone should have a safe and happy summer driving. Especially those of us in the Buick Family.

[jaxops]

I noticed that, having learned to drive in the right lane in Pennsylvania, that PA legislators have rescinded the law stating that one must drive in the right lane and pass to the left only. No one in Virginia drives that way as far as I can see. It is interesting that other states are enacting the very law that PA rescinded.

[Guest Skyking]

When driving from Rhode Island to Florida, which I've done quite a bit, I've found Virgina the worst state to drive through. For some reason the drivers seem uncontrollable.

[Matt Harwood]

All good tips. As someone who has spent more time than most behind the wheel on long trips (veteran of 3 One Lap of America races), I know you're correct on every count.

A friend of mine was recently pulled over for not moving to the other lane when passing an emergency vehicle stopped at the side of the road. He was driving a U-Haul, and didn't feel like it could get into the left lane and accelerate sufficiently. The cop finished his business with the stopped car and pulled my friend over immediately. I guess to the police, this is a much bigger deal than speeding. It's important.

The left lane is a funny thing. Most folks get there and don't want to leave. It's like an exclusive club or something--everyone works really hard to get in and they don't want to leave. And to keep it exclusive, they work equally hard to keep others out. It baffles me. A lot of drivers chug along either oblivious to traffic stacking up behind them or aware, but planning on eventually passing that truck three-quarters of a mile ahead, so they don't move over until later.

The left lane is for passing, folks. Keep right except to pass. Slower traffic keep right. If you look in your mirror and there is a car behind you, assume that he is trying to pass you. Move over. This isn't a contest to see who can affect someone else's life the most, and it isn't your job to keep the roads safe by slowing people down. If you're in the left lane but can safely move to the right, but don't, <span style="font-weight: bold">YOU ARE THE PROBLEM.</span> Use your mirrors, people. In Germany, squatting in the left lane can get you killed, and it is a ticket equal to driving intoxicated. They take it seriously because they travel faster. Oddly enough, they manage to have fewer accidents per mile traveled as well. Speed isn't the problem.

And as an addendum, keeping to the right lane will probably eliminate most road rage incidents as well. Think about it...

[Guest imported_MrEarl]

I'm with you totally regarding staying in the right lane except to pass.In fact I typically turn my left turn signal on when I start passing and don't switch it off til I have completed the pass. In other words having the left turn signal on while going down the road is telling people fore and aft that I am still passing. I do have one exception. Typically the right lane is by far the roughest due to the fact states don't design this lane sufficiently to take the amount of traffic it recieves. Therefore as I was pulling the 2.2 ton 14,000 original mile Roadmster back from New Jersey this last week end I stayed in the left lane a little more than I typically would. I hated to but when the road is so damn rough it literally bounces a car off the road I opted to stay in it.This was only the case on hwy 78 through Penn. Roughest road by far on the whole trip. Only had two red necks come hauling ass by on the right flashing the finger. I just throwed a peace sign at them and kept on truckin.........

[rocketraider]

Well, Sky- if you lived near DC, wouldn't you be uncontrollable too? <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I think I95 is one of the worst roads to drive and will go out of my way to avoid it. I81 isn't much better in certain stretches. As I grow older, I find I prefer traveling the Federal and State routes. Not as much traffic for the most part, and you can make nearly as good time on four-lanes as Interstates.

Except for that morass on US 29 called Charlottesville <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />.

[Dave@Moon]

We lost one here today.

A guy (who I didn't know) was driving his '40 Ford back from a show in Cincinnati to his home in Dayton today when he (for some reason) veered into the Jersey barrier in the center of I-75 this afternoon. He was killed. The car didn't roll, didn't spin, didn't hit anything else, and was only pancaked in on the drivers side from hitting the barrier. It appeared that the car wasn't far from drivable after the accident, although from the looks of the front clip the frame will need some work. It will likely be (I hope) an easy re-restoration for someone.

Install seat belts and use them.