re: safety last

["Greg McNair" <gmcnair@domain.elided>]

<<There is a good thought here, one that I have noticed in (USAian) Volvo
drivers as well, viz: they are basically lousy drivers, they may have had
prior scary experiences as a result, and so they want to buy and armor
themselves with a "safe" choice because "those other drivers are so
dangerous."
Charlie,
puzzled in
LA, CA, USA>>


Ouch.  I've owned 3 Volvos, my wife currently drives a 91 940SE which will
soon be stripped for SCCA club event racing, and combined we have put a
million miles behind a windshield, without a single accident.  I guess that
makes us the oddball Volvo owners who blow the stats out of the water?  You're
dang right the other drivers are what I look out for.  Back in my patrol days,
I responded to a head-on accident, 90's model Firebird v. Volvo 850 wagon.
The Firebird was left-of-center at-fault 100% and struck the Volvo, offset
head-on.  The Firebird driver was DRT.  Dead Right Thar.  The family of 4 in
the Volvo (we call them Bricks) literally opened each of their own doors and
walked away from their car, and the wrecker driver DROVE the car off the road
to the rollback after the coroner cleared the scene.  I have also seen a 16
year old girl perish at the wheel of a 245GLT (240 Wagon), 100% at-fault.  I
can go on ad-nauseum, but will spare the bandwidth.  Maybe it's LACA Volvo
drivers that are nuts, but around the Southeast, I don't see the same driving
behavior.  The worst offenders are the current-model year Mustang owners, and
certain unemployed carpool drivers who have no place plowing a Ford Incursion
through a strip mall parking lot at mach 1 to get a front-row parking spot at
the dollar store.  Those are probably the worst, because while driving my
spider in traffic, I do NOT like seeing the underside of any vehicle when all
4 of it's wheels are firmly on the pavement.

TJ, where did you get the stats regarding m'cycle/Volvo collisions?  That's a
new one on me, and would love to read the report.

Greg McNair
84 Spider
91 Unsafe Volvo
01 F150
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