Then there's the morons, with Ontario plates, who drive 40-50 km/h on the 417 Westbound just because it's raining out........
Not completely defending the individual in your first example but I am the son of a 30+ year veteran Driving Instructor who taught in the Toronto area (specifically Oakville) in the 50s, 60s and 70s. Needless to say, my own experiences as a 16 year old in learning to drive with 'good old dad' were interesting to say the least. All that said, he had a bunch of rules and though they meant nothing to me at the time, I remember most now. Two that stand out:
1. The 2 second rule when trailing another vehicle? - Make it a 3 second rule.
2. The "10% rule" - For each road hazard (night, rain, ice, snow...) drop your speed by 10% (This is a rough estimate of course). I must admit, in 35 years of driving, I have never had any serious kind of accident-not to say there haven't been numerous close calls.
I did a very informal study a couple years ago and I can't remember the exact numbers but here are them as I recall. I think the numbers come from 2003 (Province of Nova Scotia).
1. Of 96 highway fatalities, 26 were alcohol related,
2. Of the remaining 70, 7 were attributed to young or inexperienced drivers;
3. Of the remaining 63, 4 were deemed mechanical in nature;
4. Of the remaining 59, reasons like, driving too fast for road conditions, driver inattentiveness etc were cited. Suffice to say, 59 highway fatalities were caused by BAD DRIVING HABITS.
Now I am not belittling the efforts of groups like MADD and the local police in addressing the impaired driver aspect-That is a must. How though, do you address the 'bad driving habits' group though.
We have all lost someone we know to a vehicle related accident and we have all likely run through our mind how could this have been avoided.
Bottom line for all of us? Pay attention, be courtious, obey the rules and for f*** sake, SLOW DOWN, especially in shitty weather!
OK - I'm done!
