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#81
07-09-2007, 03:28 AM
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Re: If the Darwin Awards are just, he\'s...toast.
[ QUOTE ]
What part of WA? Because when I lived in Silverdale, I would hear about 2-4 bicyclists being killed EACH MONTH. [/ QUOTE ] Since 1993, it doesn't look like there's ever been more than 15 deaths in a year to bicyclists in WA state FROM ALL CAUSES combined. That's like 1/month. So, if all of these are due to accidents on the freeways, and all bikers riding in the entire state over an entire month comes out to 300 seconds of riding, we'd be at a 1% number. So, you can see, it's MANY orders of magnitude less. Another site I found said 300 injuries per 1,000,000 bike trips. That's like 0.03% of all bike trips. If all bike trips are 3 seconds long, then the burning driver would have like a 0.03% chance of being hit. But, since bike trips are many minutes or hours long, again, we are orders of magnitude less than 0.03% Certainly driving a burning car is more dangerous than this. Again...completely ignoring the chance of a wildfire (which makes pulling over on the shoulder even better!!) 
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#82
07-09-2007, 03:31 AM
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Re: If the Darwin Awards are just, he\'s...toast.
Maybe I wasn't clear in my last post. I think it's at least a reasonable possibility that the driver was concerned that his car would blow up. The danger of stopping immediately on the shoulder is not to the driver but to the other motorists in the road in my scenario. Driver thinks "Oh [censored], I have to get away from this mass of cars", gets a minimum safe distance IN HIS MIND, and exits asap. If the car had actually exploded (unlikely) would you be calling this guy a hero for saving who knows how many other freeway commuters? If so, you're being a tad too results oriented. If not, why not?
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#83
07-09-2007, 03:31 AM
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Re: If the Darwin Awards are just, he\'s...toast.
[ QUOTE ]
He probably was thinking about his car blowing up in a huge Hollywood style explosion and wanted to drive away from everyone else, and obviously didn't give two [censored] about forest fires. This isn't hard. [/ QUOTE ] This actually makes sense....if 1.) He figured the explosion size would be big enough that being 5 feet away wasn't enough 2.) Being 30 feet away from other cars would be far enough. 3.) The explosion would not occur before he could drive the extra distance, and get out of his car, then go at least 30 feet away. 4.) The explosion would occur before other drivers could move to the left, away from the fire. IF he figured all that, then you have a plausible explanation.
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#84
07-09-2007, 03:35 AM
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Re: If the Darwin Awards are just, he\'s...toast.
[ QUOTE ]
Maybe I wasn't clear in my last post. I think it's at least a reasonable possibility that the driver was concerned that his car would blow up. The danger of stopping immediately on the shoulder is not to the driver but to the other motorists in the road in my scenario. Driver thinks "Oh [censored], I have to get away from this mass of cars", gets a minimum safe distance IN HIS MIND, and exits asap. If the car had actually exploded (unlikely) would you be calling this guy a hero for saving who knows how many other freeway commuters? If so, you're being a tad too results oriented. If not, why not? [/ QUOTE ] If his car had exploded, and he moved his car closer to homes and increasing the risk of fire, no, I would not call him a hero. If his intentions were to minimize the damage should an explosion occur, I would applaud his thoughtfulness, but lament his foolishness. I would also think it foolish that he feels that he knows the likelihood of an explosion and the affected area from an explosion, but totally failed to take into account the possible wildfire from the fire/explosion.
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#87
07-09-2007, 03:44 AM
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Re: If the Darwin Awards are just, he\'s...toast.
[ QUOTE ]
That's not a Darwin award. A Darwin award is if he tried to pee on the fire to put it out after drinking rocket fuel with some buddies. [/ QUOTE ] Getting back to an earlier point...the only reasonable reason for driving up the embankment is if he wanted to start a brush fire. But I also agree with what you said.
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#88
07-09-2007, 03:51 AM
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Re: If the Darwin Awards are just, he\'s...toast.
[ QUOTE ]
Getting back to an earlier point...the only reasonable reason for driving up the embankment is if he wanted to start a brush fire. [/ QUOTE ] There is no way that is the only reasonable reason to drive up the embankment. Just think about the other scenario that you claim is highly unlikely... so the guy doesn't drive up the embankment and gets killed. Then others (maybe even you) would come out to OOT and make a post about what kind of idiot doesn't simply drive up the nearby embankment to avoid getting killed by oncoming traffic? If you asked the guy why he chose to drive up the embankment, I'm nearly 100% sure that he would not respond, "I wanted to start a forest fire." I cannot believe you are honestly giving this guy crap about how he handled, perhaps sub-optimally, an incredibly stressful situation. -RMJ
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#89
07-09-2007, 03:56 AM
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Re: If the Darwin Awards are just, he\'s...toast.
Okay, here are the two sides as far as I can guess.
1. Oh noes I might start a forest fire, to decrease the risk I'll stay as much on the pavement as possible plus I get to leave the car earlier. 2. Oh noes the car might blow the [censored] up and it could cause a major collision on this busy highway. I should get as far away from the other cars as I safely can and still get out of the car asap. What's the difference between these two other than you get to see some of the results? Nothing other than the blow up scenario is ingrained by popular media. You're just being WAY too results oriented here, ldo. Neither is more or less foolish. You still ignore the possibility that the car could have become difficult to drive, the driver was a teen who freaked, the driver was a senile 70 year old who freaked. None of these come close to deserving darwinian punishment.
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#90
07-09-2007, 06:37 AM
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Re: If the Darwin Awards are just, he\'s...toast.
Intelligencec isn't really tested when you're driving on the highway and your car lights on fire. Swerving to the shoulder at 50mph overshooting and getting up an embankment would take what, 3seconds?
Based on what you saw I thin kyou could question the guys driving ability, or ability to deal with crisis, but to hope he gets charged with arson? i think you're judging this guy a bit too much. (though a picture of the embankment could maybe convince me that it was really a struggle to get where he was)
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