Changed my driving habits as leaving middle-age approaching geezer-hood, now arrived. Most being keeping a safe distance from vehicles ahead, something that would piss me off more than anything was being tailgated. Obvious to the dipshit behind I’M just keeping a safe space btw me and vehicle in front of me. If it’s a dump truck, I double the space or more; too many broke windshields and chipped paint, so if ya want to pass, have at it.
My brother a WI State Trooper, retired, one of his pet-peeves was people tailgating, especially truckers. Though I don’t often see too many truckers tailgating; it’s the SUV’s, mini-vans, pickups. When we moved our kid from WI to Miami, rented a sizeable truck chock full of all her stuff. What a bitch it was, simply wanting to keep a safe distance for braking given my concern panic braking. Impossible, that opening was like candy to a kid – a space to conquer, half the time jamming on their brakes after cutting in front cuz well, traffic ahead was going slower. Or the exit just ahead, some dip passed me to cut back in front and hit their brakes to make the exit…look behind, not a car within a ¼ mile.
Being a one-time hot-rodder doing stupid **** I was only lucky to have gotten away with, by more luck than skill, the later part of the work I did was driver safety training, preferred to skip, but servicing captive insureds, with a shitty auto-fleet safety record, got the assignments.
Developed a different training tactic after a couple years. Began the discussion with two questions: “How many here consider yourselves as above-average drivers?” NO surprise, most hands went up.
Next question; what am I going to be able to tell you about driving safety, you already don’t know? Lol, NOTHING! I replied “I completely AGREE, I won’t be able to tell you squat; so what am I doing here?” It set a nice stage, some humor. All I’m going to talk about is the AFTERMATH of accidents some people have endured, that will be so obvious won’t have to mention it. The stuff many don’t think about or know.
I’ve already made this a long post, so will abbreviate. How might you find yourself serving 3-years in prison, where your wife and kids come to see you only on visiting day? Then they go back home and you go back to your cell? I used this example, cuz I know the family. Dad decided to run a red light, t-boning another dad right in the driver’s door killing him instantly.
One more. How about your kid? In this case a sweet daughter who wouldn’t hurt a fly, killing someone else’s dad, 42-years-old, while he was walking across a pedestrian walk, cuz she was busy texting. She was in college then and served 15-months in jail. It was sad as she was so remorseful, an emotional wreck, but well, the wife and kids of the guy she took from them, were seated behind her in the courtroom, in full view of the judge.
No ****, when doing research on this and a few stories from my brother, this actually was scary how one could end up behind bars.