Drunk Drivers

[Phoenix Talon]

Begining of my Junior year in HS their was a car accident with three kids from my class (of 455 students, mind you). They were all "jocks," in the vaugest of senses, all on the football team, all popular.

Well, one night, they had a party, and ran out of booze. Two of the three were drunk, so the youngest, the one with only his permit, took the wheel. Apparently he had had some, too. They got into a terrible car accident, cruching a car against a telephone pole. The driver, a 16 year old, was killed instantly. One lost a lung, and the other is now walking with a cane, since he has shattered the bones in his legs.

It brought my whole class together in mourning, even those that didn't know them. It was terrible. Just, it seems so stupid to do shit like that...

[dmpotter]

Hmm... I have a similar story, although it happened sophomore year in highschool. (And no alcohol was involved, as it turned out.)

Basically, a car of four people, three in my class (and one from another school - he was older, I guess) decided to race another car. The driver, only just having his license, lost control of the car and spun it into a tree, instantly killing two of my classmates. The third was wearing her seatbelt and walked away with bruises. I think the driver was more seriously hurt but I believe he survived. (Don't really remember, since I never knew him.)

Ultimately, it brought the class together in mourning over the loss of two classmates out of about 85. While they were mostly not in the same level class as I was, both of them were in one of my classes. In fact, I had a seat next to one of them.

I guess the point to this is that you don't need alcohol to drive like an idiot, or something. What was even worse was that the year before, the class two years ahead of mine lost a driver (although I think he had been driving drunk, but I'm not sure).

In a way, it brought the class together so ultimately some good came out of that. However, for any Massachusetts residents out there, it also brought about the requirement that newly licensed drivers cannot drive with people under the age of 18 (I think) for the first six months after they have their license - unless they're a sibling. I haven't really decided if this is a good thing or not - in a way, I guess it is.

[TheDuke]

[quote="dmpotter";p="247126"]Apparently they can, although the guy in college says that he was driving at 5MPH tops to avoid the pink elephants. (Seriously, this guy I knew from college claims that on his only acid trip he attempted to drive but kept slow to prevent from crashing into the halucinations. You meet a lot of idiots in college.)[/quote]

YES. GOD YES!

[Teranfirbt]

In a way, it brought the class together so ultimately some good came out of that. However, for any Massachusetts residents out there, it also brought about the requirement that newly licensed drivers cannot drive with people under the age of 18 (I think) for the first six months after they have their license - unless they're a sibling. I haven't really decided if this is a good thing or not - in a way, I guess it is.

we have that here in oregon too... People need to learn more about their car than just how it works.. they also need to learn how it drives in different situations... what the difference between RWD, FWD, and AWD mean, and what they do, and what happens when you do different things with them.... My dad taught me quite a bit about these when i first started driving, but most kids just learn how to drive....

[adamjaskie]

Yeah, one of the first things I did when I got my liscence was go to an empty, snowy parking lot, and learn how my car handled when it was sliding. I would get it up to speed, make a tight turn to get it to start sliding, then attempt to straighten it out. I learned how easy it is to overcorrect for a skid and just spin the car out of control, and how the best thing to do is be smooth trying to get back under control.

[Teranfirbt]

Yea, you gotta be smooth when the car isn't acting like it should... most people would way overcorrect and hit the brakes when they skid, which is horrible because hitting the brakes locks the tires and you just keep skidding....

[adamjaskie]

Yah, if you jerk the wheel, and overcorrect, the car just swings 180 degrees and skids passenger side first rather than driver side first. Its a lot less input than you would expect. Just a slow, smooth turning of the wheel until it starts moving back straght, then start turning the wheel smoothly the other way for when it starts coming back around. I managed to get the car completely sideways at 30 mph, and get it going straight ahead and under control only fishtailing twice.