Whew! What a thread...
A few thoughts about auto safety:
- Those who weren't so lucky to 'make it this far' aren't here to say
they didn't.
- IMO, auto safety is all about probabilities multiplied by miles
driven. If we stick to fatalities for simplicity, there is some chance
you will die in the safest car on the road. You can increase that by
driving a small car instead of a big car. You can increase that by
driving a car with less safety equipment than more. You can increase
that based on driving conditions--by driving on a busy freeway at rush
hour when people are shaving and eating behind the wheel, instead of a
freeway in the desert to the next VTR convention. And of course, if you
*really* want to increase it, don't pay attention while driving. Then
you mulitply the base probability for a given car and situation by the
miles you drive in that configuration. It's a matter of what
probability you're comfortable with, which is highly personal.
- Of course, it's hard to evaluate these probabilities without some
understanding of what they are on an absolute scale (not just
relative). Sites like http://www.hwysafety.org and
http://www.nhsta.dot.gov can help provide inputs to help you decide
what absolute probability you're comfortable with (in addition to
relative probabilities), and what you're willing to do to achieve it.
- Example: I feel that extra attention I pay to what's going on around
me when driving my LBCs more than makes up for their size, for example.
I'm perfectly happy multiplying that probability with the ~100
miles/month I drive them. However, I unfortunately commute about 1200
miles/month during busy commute hours, and personally I'm not
comfortable mulitplying the 'safety probability' of the LBCs by that
number of miles in a month. So I drive a 2000 VW GTI with lots of
airbags and modern engineering. This is a small car, though, but I'm
comfortable increasing my probability considering how much more fun it
is compared to a bigger car, despite a 3000 lb car having 25% higher
fatality rate than a 4000 lb car (as I recall).
- The insurance companies agree with this probability approach--there's
a reason your insurance goes up when you get speeding tickets, or you
drive more miles per year. You're more likely to die (again, sticking
with fatalities for simplicity).
So pick the probability x miles you're personally comfortable with and
drive happy!
Steve
71 TR6
72 GT6
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