Safe driving

I received this from our insurance agent last night. I had never heard of this particular law before!

If a patrol car is pulled over to the side of the road with its lights flashing, you have to change to the next lane (away from the stopped vehicle) or slow down by 20 mph below the stated speed limit. Every state except New York, Hawaii, and Maryland, and the District of Columbia has a version of this law.

For more detail, see MoveoverAmerica.com and Snopes.

Whoa! I can't imagine driving like this!

Best I can make out, this occurred in Southern California back in April.

A driver tried to ram a Long Beach car, prompting an hour-long, high-speed chase in which the woman drove the car in circles, went the wrong way on a tollway and even got out of the car to gesture at officers.

The woman was arrested after about a 40-mile pursuit. No injuries were reported, but the woman endangered motorists on four freeways, California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers said.

The chase began when Long Beach officers went to an intersection shortly after 6 a.m. in response to a report of a woman screaming. A car tried to ram their police cruiser three times and then fled, Long Beach police Officer Jackie Bezart said.

After an eight-minute chase through Long Beach, the driver got onto a freeway and the CHP was notified. Officers chased the silver Scion into Orange County at speeds that sometimes topped 100 mph, authorities said. Television news helicopters carried the chase live.

On the SR 241 tollway in Rancho Santa Margarita--where the video clips below were shot--the woman made "doughnuts" while driving on both shoulders of the road, briefly drove the wrong way then got out of the car and gestured with both hands at officers before returning to the slowly rolling vehicle and driving off.

Shortly thereafter, a patrol car rammed the back of the Scion, spinning it around in an attempt to stop it, but the driver managed to flee once more.

The car finally was stopped at the end of the tollway in an unincorporated area near Rancho Santa Margarita after being bumped a second time. The Scion was boxed in and swarmed by officers, including one who jumped onto the roof. The woman was pulled through the car's window, forced to the ground and handcuffed.

First video, covering the end of the chase played at a slightly faster-than-normal pace (maybe 120% of real life) and set to humorous music (0:54):



Second video, a more sober summary of the story with the same basic video but shot from a different angle (1:56):



Glad I have not found myself confronted by drivers like this!

. . . And if they aren't enough, and you really want to get your blood pumping . . .

How about this a police chase of a stretch limo going upwards of 150 mph--with a goodly portion of the chase conducted while the limo driver is driving his vehicle in reverse (3:42)?!?

Walk, ride, drive?

Another location-based post.

Yesterday, as I was looking for information about Zevia, I went to their website, and asked where I could buy it locally. The closest store, I was told, is 5.76 miles away. I was unaware of the location, so I went to Google and asked for directions. As I plugged in the necessary information, I was astonished to see a new option I had never seen before on Google Maps: "By car."



"What's this?" I thought. "What other options do they offer me?"

Amazing! One of the options is "Public transportation."

What are the differences between the two maps?

Well, here is the first map:



And here is the "Public transportation" map:



Okay. Beyond the map itself, what other information do they give me?

Oh! This is interesting!

"Suggested trips with upcoming departures." And then detailed instructions.



Click on one of the symbols . . .



. . . and find the same kind of information as is in the left-hand column.



But what other alternatives do they offer?

"Walking"? What will that show?

Well, I get the map . . .



. . . and I get all the detailed directions:



And then something jumps out at me: the time.



Walking: three hours and 19 minutes. Wow!

How long would public transportation take?



Somewhere between about an hour and 15 minutes and an hour and 45 minutes.

And by car?



About 15 minutes!

And people wonder why we prefer our private cars to public transportation . . . or walking? How much is your time worth?

Gawking at traffic accidents

192 car pile up in Los Angeles in 2003.
Image via Wikipedia We don't want to waste time--either our own or others'--while driving on the freeway. But there is something about a major traffic accident that seems to bring out the gawker, gawper, gaper or rubbernecker in all of us.

So why not get it out of our system in a safer environment?

Someone sent me this link a couple of days ago. It's titled "The most dangerous traffic light in the world (St. Petersburg, Russia)." It's a wonderful compilation of truly remarkable accidents caught on some kind of stable traffic cam (1:14).

From there, I was hooked and pursued a few more. (Please excuse some vulgar language in people's comments!):

A possibly doctored video (???--it appears completely impossible, but I've viewed it several times and I'm really not sure) of someone who apparently zipped through an intersection unharmed. Whether doctored or not, it's amazing just the same (0:10):

Don Renfrow's amazing escape from a drag racing mishap shown at regular speed forward, slow-mo in reverse, and, then, slow-mo, once more, forward (2:03):


[Limited in time? Let me encourage you to skip to the very last video . . . and/or, maybe, the one just before it. But if you have the time, you may enjoy these intervening ones.]

A not-so-scary (because it's a slide show) view of "the world's most dangerous roads" (2:18):


(Personally, I'd say the roads in this last video aren't necessarily as dangerous as they are simply scary . . . or . . . unattractive. (I'd certainly not want to have to drive on them.))

And then you can find all the crash scenes you want:

* Amazing "car crash pileup on icy Italian highway" (terrible image quality at many points throughout due to moisture on lens. Nothing seems to happen for the first 38 seconds, but notice the car in the right-hand lanes that does a complete 360 and keeps going, apparently without a hitch, at about 19 seconds into the sequence; 3:57):

. . . which reminds me of . . .

* One of the first "icy pile up" videos I ever saw on YouTube a couple of years ago. --You begin to think, "This is unbelievable!" (1:31; especially humorous with Frank Sinatra singing "Walking in a Winter Wonderland" as backup to the original news soundtrack.)


* And "automobile pinball" (that's my name for it). I don't know if I saw this one first (way back when) or the immediately preceding video. But you have to wonder how roads can get quite this slippery. I mean, everything happens in exceptionally slow-motion real-time. No question this video was not doctored. . . . Absolutely mind-blowing (2:22):


Enjoy the "rubbernecking"!