Quote:
Originally Posted by AngryScientist
terrible news.
young male drivers with a fresh drivers license and a powerful car are sometimes just too senselessly aggressive and dangerously reckless behind the wheel.
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Although that's certainly true, the kind of reckless stupidity exhibited by the driver is by no means exclusive to that demographic. There's a knee jerk "if something in my way, pass" and considerations like being on a blind curve or the crest of a hill are irrelevant.
There's a road I ride on regularly (no choice, only so many ways out of my small town) with a short, steepish hill on it. On the outbound leg the approach is fairly straight. I use a mirror and check my six to see if anything is coming, if so, I pull over and wait because the road is narrow and there's no room whatsoever for three vehicles (me and two cars) and I don't want to risk it.
On the inbound leg, the hill is preceded by a curve so I can't see if anything is coming. When I reach the hill I "take the lane" if there's a car coming from behind but this doesn't stop people from passing me.
Recently, I was on this stretch, a car came from behind. I was fully in the lane, left of the center of my lane. The car passed anyway. Surprise! A car was cresting the hill coming the other way - who'd have thought? The car passing me literally ran it off the road (fortunately, there's just enough room to avoid a head-on collision). i also dove for the ditch and narrowly avoided crashing.
I crested the hill and saw the car turn. Where did they go? Into an assisted living facility right at the bottom of the hill. I pulled into the parking lot and confronted the driver: a mid-30's nurse that worked at the facility. I was polite but asked several questions of the form "what in the world were you thinking", "was getting here 5 seconds earlier worth my life and yours", etc.
Doubt it had any effect at all.
The event in the article is so sad. A persons life ended for no reason at all other than impatience.