-----Original Message-----
From: owner-ba-autox@autox.team.net
[mailto:owner-ba-autox@autox.team.net]On Behalf Of Kevin Lahey
Sent: Sunday, February 24, 2002 12:26
To: Michael R. Clements
Cc: Bay_Area_Autocross_List
Subject: Re: How racers drive
> We all like to tell ourselves this, but I wonder how my autocross
> skills are going to protect me from, say, being rear-ended in my
> 2,300 lb. daily driver. I mean, with the rollbar, I'll probably
> get knocked harder on the head than I would without it.
It's not about skills. Skills are great but something like 75% of all
collisions would be prevented if people simply paid attention and drove
defensively.
Talk to any motorcyclist who's been riding for more than 10 years and you'll
find there are little habits you pick up to avoid becoming the victim of
somebody else's stupidity. There are situations where most people think you
have no control (such as being rear ended), but you actually do have at least
some control. In your example of a read-end, if you watch your rear view
mirrors and blink your brake lights or use your horn, you can see it coming
and have a chance to prevent it. This has saved me on my motorbike more than a
few times and at least once I can remember in my car.
Put another way, you can rely on your finely honed autocross skills to
maintain control of your car while swerving out of somebody's way when he
tries to ram you on the freeway. Or, you can simply stay out of people's blind
spots and it will never happen in the first place.
One of my favorite phrases is that there are old pilots, and there are bold
pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots. Drivers should learn this too.
Unfortunately, being surrounded by a steel cage gives most drivers a sense of
security that they discover only too late is utterly false. The most important
safety feature of any car is not the seatbelts or its X,000 lbs. of mass --
it's the driver.
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