On Mon, 24 Jun 2002, Carson Black wrote:
> I have some experience in crashing after participating
> in a performance driving school(Skip Barber 2-Day). It
> happened about a week after the school on a the first
> really rainy day of the year. I was not speeding,
> actually going slower than the posted limit when this
> happened. A p/u truck driving in front of me made an
> erratic stop and I was forced to stop quickly. I
> wasn't tailgating as I would have munched pretty bad
> if I had been. It was very slick piece of road that
> doesn't get driven on that often. My car doesn't have
> ABS and therefore I went into lock. I was back far
> enough that I could see that there was no oncoming
> trafic and I realized that I had slid too far and
> wasn't getting enough traction trying to modulate the
> brakes to keep from hitting him in the rear so I
> decided to gett off the brakes and steer to the left
> of him since there was nothing to go to aon the right.
> I tried to turn into the open cross street that teed
> into the street I was on but as I got around him and
> almost made it past he turned into me hard. I kept
> control of the car through the hit and safely rolled
> it off the pavement into a dirt lot, despite the
> suspension getting obviously tweaked by the hit. I
> thought about what happened and kind of find it
> humorous that only a week before getting into that
> accident I went to a driving school. But I never would
> have been able to process all of that input and
> minimize the amount of damage without the increased
> skill and ability to remain calm and not panic in a
> situation such as this. I was able to react quickly to
> the slide, make an almost successful emergency lane
> change and properly guide the car off the road. All
> without causing myself or the other person any injury
> and minimizing the damage to my car and his. As stated
> before the study doesn't take into account who's at
> fault in the accident nor does it assess whether the
> damage, personal or mechanical, was minimized due to
> the improved reactions of the advanced driver.
> You learn in driving schools like Skip Barber that
> accidents are sometimes unavoidable, it's how you
> react to those accidents that makes a difference.
> Put me against a "normal" driver on a wet skid pad and
> let's see who controls the car better when they yank
> the e-brake. I can do it in a pickup with bald rear
> tires, can a "normal" driver?
> Additionally, back in '74 they didn't have cell phones
> or as many distractions to driving as they do now.
> I also agree that road racing or it's very distant
> cousin, the street school, don't provide you with the
> same situations as what you find on the highways.
> There everyone is focused and prepared mentally for
> the worst to happen(most of the time). I have never
> been scared out on the track, even when I'm right on
> the tail of someone while we're flying through a
> corner. But I have been scared plenty out in "normal"
> traffic. And there you have the benefit of blinkers,
> traffic signals and speed limits. Very few accidents
> ever happen at the street school, and on the rare
> occasion it only involves one car, not muli-car
> pile-ups like we have on the freeways. I wonder why?
> Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup
> http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com
If you couldn't stop faster than a pickup truck without losing control of
your car, it *DOES* sound like you were tailgating.
To generalize, this is a great example of my big problem with assertions
by racers that they are superior street drivers and lower insurance risks.
Racers generally have advanced car control skills. If you have to use
advanced car control skills on the street, you've usually already done
something wrong.
KeS
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