 |
| Image courtesy Volvo Cars |
For the month of April I will be participating in the
Blogging From A to Z Challenge. Learn more about the challenge by clicking
here. Each day (except Sundays) I will be posting a theme based on each letter
of the alphabet. This blog is covering automotive topics for the month. To read
my other blog posts for the challenge, click here.
Despite this fear of crashes, I find watching car crash videos to be fascinating. Maybe the reason why is that I've been in a few close calls a number of times and I feel the need to relive the experience. Or maybe it's a way to release tension after dealing with morons on the road who do everything but drive when they're behind the wheel. The following video of a driver smashing the cell phone of a guy who crashed into his car is a perfect example:
Of course, some of the most horrific crashes are from motorsports. The combination of high speed and racing fuel can make for some serious consequences when things go wrong. One of the most horrific crashes I can remember seeing is from 1998 at the JGTC race at Fuji. The short clip below shows Tetsuya Ota crash his Ferrari F355 into a Porsche 911 that had spun out. Ota's car burst into flames on contact, leaving him trapped into the inferno. What you can't see in the video is how a fellow racer, Shinichi Yamaji, used his own car's fire extinguisher to help put out the blaze and begin the process of extracting Ota from his Ferrari. By some miracle, Ota survived the ordeal, but it still underscores how dangerous motorsports crashes can be.
Okay, the first crash: funny. I laughed out loud when the guy got out of his car, opened the door of the car that hit him, and threw the phone on the ground. Man, I feel that frustration.
ReplyDeleteThat second crash: gasp. I cannot believe the guy in the Ferrari survived. It was a fireball.
Ditto.
Deletemobile phones (even hands free) are the bane of our existence, there should be stricter laws concerning drivers and mobile phones, as a good deal of the more modern crashes are caused by them.
ReplyDeleteWe have some fairly strict laws here, but California is even tougher on cell phones. Personally, I don't use mine when driving. Ever.
DeleteIt isn't just mobile phones, though. The list of dangerous practices while driving is endless: Eating, drinking, applying make up, changing clothes, reading the newspaper, intimate activities, checking on or yelling at the kids, a heated discussion with a passenger...I don't really need to go on, do I? But the pervasiveness of phones and the way they seem to pull the attention even more than most other things is a concern.
ReplyDeleteJean, visiting for the A-Z Challenge from Rantings and Ravings of an Insane Writer
You're absolutely right. Studies have proven that disciplining a child while driving is just as dangerous as talking on a cell phone. Some foods are especially dangerous to eat while driving, yet people still do it!
DeleteLove when people are caught with their own words!
ReplyDeleteFlorida is full of bad drivers! A few years ago the United States Postal Service even issued a guide on how to properly put a car in gear since so many people were crashing through the front of post offices throughout the state.
ReplyDelete