Any mention of drugs or alcohol involved?
This is eerie, just last evening, wife and I were leaving a shopping center onto a busy road, just as I came to a complete stop at the red light, it turned green, I always take a look both directions before proceeding. That 3 extra seconds for me to look, irked the late 20's early 30's snowflake driver that was behind us. Horns began honking, arms flailing around, shrugged shoulders, all appeared in my rear mirror.
We turn left, she cam flying up along the passenger side of my vehicle screaming out her window. I continue on. We get stopped at a red light, she's still beside us and we can see she's mouthing off. I think for a brief second, that maybe there was something wrong with the back of my car or something, I roll down the passenger side window just enough to hear what she was saying. Now screaming "Didn't you see the light was green? What the hell were you....." she faded out as I rolled the window back up, I smiled real big and waved to her as we drove off. Geez.
About 8 years ago, I was driving home late at night from work, and came to a "TEE" intersection. I stopped at the red light, and when it turned green, I looked both ways, as you do, because, as they told us in Driver's Ed, back in the mid '70s, "You're just as dead whether or not you had the right of way." or "He had the right of way." makes a nice epitaph on your tombstone.
Anyhow, I've never been more glad that I did. Had I pulled out when the light changed, I would have been broadsided on the driver's side by an 18 wheeler going about 50, who blew right through the red light HE had. I seriously doubt that impact would have been survivable. Call me paranoid, but I also look both ways before crossing railroad tracks regardless of the state of the crossing gate. Equipment can fail! People make mistakes.
Again, from that mid '70s driver's ed class: It takes TWO people making mistakes to create an accident. I've prevented many accidents by being alert and "covering for" someone else's mistake. And I've been granted the same grace in return when people have done what was necessary to prevent MY mistake from causing a wreck.
We watched "Death on the Highway", "Red Asphalt", "Mechanized Death" and many other gruesome 16mm "movies" when I was in high school. Lots of them seem to have been made back in the '50s or '60s, but they made the point. I'm sure they're not allowed to show any of those these days! People were passing out and puking on the floor of the classroom. But hey, it was good for us.
We also saw one that showed the entire surgery to remove most of a cancerous lung from a smoker. That one made a few people pass out or make a mad dash for the bathroom, too! I think the part where they used a spreader gadget to crank the guy's split-down-the-middle sternum apart was about the worst part. That, and making the initial incision straight down the middle of the guy's chest. The surgeon made several passes with the scalpel, each one going in a bit deeper down the same line. For whatever reason, that seemed both interesting and shocking to watch.
I haven't smoked, and I wear my seatbelt.
That security camera video is a good one. Not too gruesome, but it shows the effect of being stupid and impatient, and the effect of NOT wearing your seatbelt. The violence of the impact is surprising, and drives home the point.
