Cardinal Fang
12-03-2007, 09:54 AM
So I thought I'd post my thoughts on my drive in this morning.
Our subdivision was iced over completely. As I drove out to make it to the main roads I came upon a guy in a Denali basically weaving to either side of the iced road. Why you ask? Simple really....he was over compensating to correct every slide and ended up making each slide progressively worse than the other. He was making it worse by fighting the vehicles tracking control at every turn. I slow down to give him some space and the slides right front first into the snow bank. At this point he's perpendicular to the road.
After I could see he was alright I smile and carefully pass him and make my way to the major intersection. As I approach the car waiting there in front of me (Lexus) I can see in my rear view mirror the Denali has managed to dislodge himself from the snow bank and has continued to drive in the schizophrenic manner. My Spidy sense kicked in and I put my car in reverse leaving about 15 feet between myself and the Lexus in front of me. I looked in my mirror and sure enough the Denali passed the point where I could see he could safely stop and not hit me. I turned to the right and went into a driveway, quickly rolled down my window and watched him slam into the Lexus and then watched the Lexus go into the intersection. The intersection was clear so nobody hit the Lexus.
I got out to see if both drivers were ok and they were. I left my business card with the driver of the Lexus in case he needed my statement and went back to my car. The guy of the Denali asked me why my car wasn't sliding all over the place like his car was. Why he had so many driver aids and it still didn't help him keep control of the car. I thought about it and then looked at him and said.
"Do you know the author Douglas Adams?"
"No."
"Well he said once that the problem with making anything idiot proof is that it under estimates the ingenuity of idiots."
He smiled and just looked at me. I smiled and looked back and said.
"Exactly!"
Our subdivision was iced over completely. As I drove out to make it to the main roads I came upon a guy in a Denali basically weaving to either side of the iced road. Why you ask? Simple really....he was over compensating to correct every slide and ended up making each slide progressively worse than the other. He was making it worse by fighting the vehicles tracking control at every turn. I slow down to give him some space and the slides right front first into the snow bank. At this point he's perpendicular to the road.
After I could see he was alright I smile and carefully pass him and make my way to the major intersection. As I approach the car waiting there in front of me (Lexus) I can see in my rear view mirror the Denali has managed to dislodge himself from the snow bank and has continued to drive in the schizophrenic manner. My Spidy sense kicked in and I put my car in reverse leaving about 15 feet between myself and the Lexus in front of me. I looked in my mirror and sure enough the Denali passed the point where I could see he could safely stop and not hit me. I turned to the right and went into a driveway, quickly rolled down my window and watched him slam into the Lexus and then watched the Lexus go into the intersection. The intersection was clear so nobody hit the Lexus.
I got out to see if both drivers were ok and they were. I left my business card with the driver of the Lexus in case he needed my statement and went back to my car. The guy of the Denali asked me why my car wasn't sliding all over the place like his car was. Why he had so many driver aids and it still didn't help him keep control of the car. I thought about it and then looked at him and said.
"Do you know the author Douglas Adams?"
"No."
"Well he said once that the problem with making anything idiot proof is that it under estimates the ingenuity of idiots."
He smiled and just looked at me. I smiled and looked back and said.
"Exactly!"