Thanks, Everette,
I think I contributed to the confusion by saying that I never touched the
brakes. What I should have said is I never got the chance to touch the
brakes. I didn't even get time to flinch the steering wheel.
As I said before, this accident spooked me very badly because there was
never anything I could have done to prevent it. I was going 10 mph below
the speed limit in a lower gear than necessary. I couldn't see the street
the driver was approaching on. I was sticking to main roads rather than
back streets.
I have now lost all my illusions that a defensive driver can avoid all
accidents by anticipating them. I am feeling much better about the whole
incident now, but I will never be as confident a driver as I was last week.
Joe Garrett
cell 425-344-1402
-----Original Message-----
From: Military Vehicles Mailing List [mailto:mil-veh@mil-veh.org]On
Behalf Of Everette Doyle
Sent: Sunday, September 02, 2001 1:40 PM
To: Military Vehicles Mailing List
Subject: Re: [MV] Luck and Damned Luck, the morning after
My .02 cents worth
The replies that suggest something could/should have been done differently -
in my opinion have never been in this situation -- check with your local
high school drivers Ed about reaction time. Driver did not even have
seconds from time auto appeared until he had hit it. Been there / done that.
I once saw a person try to beat a school bus from a 4 way stop. I was
behind car - bus stopped - car did not - before car could clear intersection
bus had hit it - and bus was stopped when car decided that he could get
across before school bus could get started. - Loaded bus - standard
transmission - hit car in passenger door. Bumper on bus stopped at steering
wheel on car. Bus was not going 5 mph when it hit car -- I got on bus
before it was moved and you could not see car from drivers seat of bus. -
This was standard long nose Intl. school bus. Damage to bus - scratched
bumper -- auto - total loss.
And this bus bumper no way was a high off ground as bumper on 5 ton truck.
My son was passed on shoulder by a full size Dodge van as he attempted a
right turn in deuce and half air compressor truck. Dodge went to scrap
yard - had to replace bumper on deuce.
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Oct 08 2001 - 10:58:56 PDT