If any proof were required for the existence of God, it is that only 41,059 people were killed in automobile-related accidents in the United States of America in 2007.
By my observation of American automotive habits, and some bush arithmetic, I arrive at the figure of 71.3 million people who should have died, if their driving skills pertain. Ergo, a million miracles a week, ergo a God. See, in one paragraph I have solved a problem baffling man for five million years.
I don't mean to make light of any death on the road: every single one is a tragedy. No joke. But if I discern the way people manipulate their cars at high speed correctly, no-one - and I mean no-one - thinks it will happen to them.
Today I completed a Miami return, without an actual human passenger - 460 miles of mostly freeway driving with a coda of Latino insanity for punctuation. (Story to be related later.) Lacking a customer with a deadline (ha-ha) I did the trip without once exceeding the speed limit for a change. That gave me the time and concentration to observe how my fellow freeway dwellers behaved, from the safety of the slow lane.
My thing is tailgating. If you're travelling at 75 miles per hour, and you are only three feet behind the vehicle ahead, there is no braking system in the world that will save you. If they stop quicker than your reaction time, you better be hoping the crumple zone and the air-bag save your stupid sorry arse, because Newton discovered that physics won't.
As I said, there's a miracle every minute.
For interest, I snapped the photo about an hour before sunset tonight while I was out on a bike ride.
Technorati: God, Limousine Life, Death, Tailgating
7 comments:
Very true; and great pic. What bike do you ride?
gorgeous pic, sugar! i'm so with you re: tailgating. i change lanes whenever an asshole even looks like they're in a hurry! it truly astounds me how some people drive as if they're at the indy 500 in a mini van! ;~D xoxox
Thank you, Perakath. The universe continually amazes me when a cloudy sunset can look so similar to some of those Hubble photos of vast areas of gas and dust somewhere light years out there. Nature repeats in many ways and many scales.
My bike is a Schwinn hard tail mountain bike. Cheap and cheerful. Nothing special.
Bingo! Oh, Sugar, you and I are together on the mini-van-as-Indy-car thing. Who knew that from the inside they feel like a Lamborghini? (!)
Oh... I thought you meant a motorbike :)
Lovely photo - I'm a sucker for clouds and sunsets.
You're right about the nit-wit drivers. Some guy passed me today; had to go fast. Then some TOTAL idiot on a motorcycle came out right in front of him. By rights that motorcyclist should have gone flying but the speeder managed to avoid him. Slowed him down though! Suddenly the speed limit seemed more reasonable to him.
Thanks Don, me too. And every day is an opportunity for a new one. Cool.
Oh, man, that scene must be played out thousands of times each day all over the country. I often find my mind wondering to planning for the time when I actually witness some clown scraping himself all over the pavement; how I'll park, what I'll say to the 911 people; whether my adrenaline will allow me to hold arteries together, what I'll say when I'm late to pick up the customer....
Horrible.
Ah, Perakath. A motorbike would be sweet, but the only places I would ride one are a track or my own land. Everywhere else is WAY too dangerous.
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