Hi, all,
I'm thinking of starting one of those "chain emails," but without the threats and hocus-pocus. The goal would be to collect tips on how to be a safe driver, to remind people to give the road their best attention every time, and to wish them safe travels.

This first draft got long, and I'd appreciate your comments before I start emailing it out. I'll probably cut a lot of the personal detail, and some of the "lecturing." Please tell me your favorite parts, so I keep them. If you add a favorite tip now, I'll include it in the original email.

Thanks,
Erica

"Bless the Road:"

We're approaching the 2-year anniversary. On May 26, 2006, my partner Ernie was struck by a car going about 40 mph. Luckily, only his leg was hit, and he got to keep over 2/3 of his lower leg. $230,000 in bills and eleven surgeries later, he's "recovering." He still lives with about an 8 of 10 on the pain scale most days. He walks with a cane and a heavy limp, and has to put his leg up 4-5 hours per day to reduce swelling. No more star athlete, no more back-country rambler, he's making a new life by piecing together other remaining skills that he can do with his leg up and his brain on painkillers (and/or distracted by pain).

You're probably thinking of common questions:
- No, he didn't have health insurance, no workman's comp. He was basically standing on the sidewalk talking, and ironically volunteering with a pedestrian-safety project.
- Yes, the driver was insured, and the insurance paid its maximum: $100,000, plus $15,000 from the community organization that sponsored the volunteer project.
- No, we didn't sue -- the driver was a young mother taking her child to the doctor, only been driving for about 3 months, and misjudged the speed at a dangerous intersection on a rainy day. Part of the problem was that everybody goes too fast, so when she was getting ready to turn left she was going too fast too and didn't know how to fix it.
We like the community organization, so we didn't want to sue them. And though the city had already gotten many complaints about that dangerous intersection, there are worse accidents here almost every week. A local lawyer did a marvelous job helping us settle the bills. Many care providers took partial payments, cancelled debts, or donated services when they learned the situation. Friends and family donated money, food, and helped with transport, rent, and healing.

Ernie is now getting primary care through the VA due to a previous service-connected injury, and earning some of his keep by doing sporadic handyman jobs, consulting on ecological design, and teaching kids and adults the hands-on and outdoor skills that he can still do.
We're trying to start a business together, to teach together, and we make a pretty good team. But it's hard. Feel free to check out the website I put together about our life, work, and wedding: www.ErnieAndErica.info.
...
I was running late on a long drive yesterday, and said "Oh dear, I'm going to have to do over seventy to make it back in time." The friend I was visiting (a teacher nearing retirement) looked sadly at me and said, "Just remember ... the impact is proportional to the cube of the speed. We want you to come back alive."
So I decided to pray for help, and take the road as safely as I could. I didn't get a miracle, but I did get a calm sense of focus that lasted throughout the long drive. I avoided 2 or 3 potential accidents in the rain, and was thankful for many things along the way. For good friends, good advice, grace, and even the sherriff's car - "the lord is my shepherd he leadeth me in green pastures" became a green SUV with little antennae everywhere that sliced the traffic open without going too fast for safety.
I had a lot of time to think on that drive. I want to share it. Please pass this on, and add to it, and remind me when I need it again.

- Impact cube of speed:
How bad an accident is doesn't just depend on how fast you're going; it depends how fast you _stop_. Defensive driving schools say be aware of your escape routes, be prepared to "ride off the road." Skidding through in a horse pasture is safer than wrapping your car around a big tree (or head-on collisions) because you can stop more gradually on a surface. The only thing you can really control in an accident is the speed you were going before it happens - but this gives you advantages in reaction time, stopping distance, awareness of options, and force of impact.

For physics geeks: Force=mass x acceleration (change in speed). Injuries come from quick force, or impact. Impact = mass x "jerk," (jerk is change in acceleration). So impact is proportional to mass x speed x speed x speed.

Think about going a courteous 10 mph on a bumpy gravel road; if you suddenly slid into a tree and stopped dead, at that speed you'd just be annoyed and shaken up. 10 mph is a good running or jogging pace, about the impact speed the body is designed to handle.
If 10 mph is our standard, here's how it multiplies out:
Speed Impact Deaths: driver/ Bystanders
10 mph | 1K | Rare / Rare,
Worst case scenario at 10 mph usually involves heavy vehicles e.g. bike vs dump truck, brakes fail on parked truck
20 mph | 16K | Uncommon / Occasional
20 is the speed at which kids on bikes get hit in neighborhoods and driveways; about the speed of a trotting horse.
30 mph | 27K | Occasional / Common
A running horse, but not a racehorse.
40 mph | 64K | Common / Likely -
This was the speed Ernie got hit. At this speed, faster than most horses can gallop, many drivers survive; more than half the pedestrians who get hit by a vehicle at this speed die of their injuries.
60 mph | 216K | Likely / Almost always
80 mph | 512K | Very likely / Almost always (survivors usually mangled and/or paralysed)
100 mph | 1000K | Almost always / Almost always

So adding 20 mph to the speed... roughly doubles your damage. What's twice as bad as being stuck with crippling pain for the rest of your life? I don't know, and I don't want to find out.

Other things I've learned lately:
- Pedestrians get hit more often than you'd think in a traffic accident. One theory is that panicking drivers may accidentally steer toward the pedestrian during an accident, because they're looking at them and your body steers where you look.
- "Non-fatalities" and miraculous recoveries (like Ernie's) may still be career-ending and permanent injuries.

- Please, never, ever, use speed to stay awake. Roll down a window, take a coffee break, a power nap, sing something to yourself, say a prayer. Get off the road and stretch your legs. If you're too bored to drive the speed limit, you need a new hobby.

- Reviewing the Rules:
I've had a number of very reasonable people tell me
"Be careful, don't go below the speed limit because it annoys drivers trying to go 70 mph, and they become dangerous."
"So you're saying that by obeying the law and not exceeding the speed limit, I'm creating a hazard by inconveniencing law-breakers."
"Well, sorta, I'm not saying break the law for safety, but that's how it really is. You can get away with a couple miles under, but 5 or 10 miles under the speed limit is dangerous."
"Aren't they already being dangerous by going 75 in a 55 zone?"
"Well, that's why you don't want them getting mad and acting stupid(er)."
It's a common way of thinking, but to my mind, it feeds the problem. I don't go 45 on the highway if I can help it on a clear day, but I consider it a reasonable and prudent speed when there's fog, rain, darkness, possibly ice. And sometimes, my 3-cylinder car just won't go any faster than that up a hill. Do I put my hazard lights on when I can't accelerate? I go slower yet if there's a hazard involving people, broken road, or livestock.
I don't think Oregon's "reasonable and prudent" speed rule was designed to permit mob-rule speed-limit violations. Do you? I thought it meant you can be ticketed for dangerous driving even when going under the speed limit, if you fail to use common sense and _slow down_ for road hazards, sharp turns, and the like. The only reason it would be prudent to increase your risk of a fatal crash would be if someone's going to die if you don't - for a medical emergency, firefighting, police, or evacuation.

I invite other reasonable and prudent people to join me in creating a "slow lane" on the right that actually goes at or below the speed limit. We can leave the fast lane to law-breakers and those with emergencies or emergency services.

I've also heard, "I know we're supposed to check our car before each drive, but nobody does that, right?"
"Who really remembers the order at stop signs? Or how far to signal before a turn?
It's been years since my driver's test...
..."nobody remembers that, right?"
You're scaring me. Most of us do remember the rules, and they matter way more than the test does. When we forget, we ask someone. Or go back to the driver's manual to check for any changes.
Know the rules of the road.
http://www.dmv.org/ is an insurer-sponsored unofficial guide that includes manuals and other driving info; http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/DMV/forms/manuals.shtml is Oregon's DMV and driver manual.

Review the rules of the road when you move, drive in a new state, or if you get confused and realize you've forgotten a rule.
(Or read them when are suffering from insomnia and need a cheap, effective, non-addictive sleeping "drug" with side benefits. Your insurance policy is also good for this. ;-).

Review the rules of the road, and other driver responsibilities, before you get a ticket. Especially after you get a warning Don't trust the ticket or officer's word -- look it up yourself.

I got zinged for not understanding the handicap parking rules - for example, did you know the handicapped person has to be getting in or out of the car, not just sitting in back or owning the car? Learning this could save you a $490 fine. Isn't $500 worth a few minutes of your time? Not to mention that the most blameless accident can still get you sued for hundreds of thousands in medical bills(plus loss of income, future care, pain and suffering) by someone who's not as altruistic as Ernie.

- Privilege and Responsibility:
Driving safely is difficult. And when we do it every day, it can be boring. Yet we are not prepared to drive less. Limiting our driving for safety's sake is a scary idea for seniors and teenagers alike, as well as for harried career-parents who can't imagine how to get it all done without the car. Impossible? No, just difficult to change. We've heard of people who argue that cheap access to gasoline, toll-free roads, or a driver's license is a human right equivalent to being able to leave one's house. Good lord, how did we survive all those millenia without automobiles?

To avoid killing and maiming each other, we need to treat our cars like we treat our guns:
- safely stowed when not in use;
- conscious of where it's pointing at all times;
- aware of bystanders, and holding back rather than killing them for being in the wrong place.
- kept oiled, cleaned, and otherwise free of dangerous surprises.
You would't talk on your cell phone or read while casually holding a loaded gun in your lap, would you?

If you don't want laws to take people's guns or cars away (or even if you do), we need to handle our lethal weapons with a care bordering on reverence.
We need to keep an eye on other users, so that their bad actions don't result in our own privileges being threatened.

And we need to make sure that people who can't use them safely (due to inexperience, impairment, or conflicting responsibilities) get their needs honored without causing tragic accidents.
- Give a young mother a ride to the doctor, so she can concentrate on her baby.
- Take Grandpa fishing, but let his car die a natural death in the driveway if he can't remember how to "fix" it.
That sort of thing.

- Call for rituals
I collect good advice, so I'll start the list. But I know this problem is bigger than me. Please add to this list your favorite driving habit, ritual, prayer, safety tip, or resource. (To avoid repeating, if you do something that has already been mentioned, just put a * by it to show it works for you, too). Finally, please say a blessing, light a candle, hang a flag, or give a friend a hug when they head out the door -- do something today to bless the road, and keep those safe who travel upon it.

1) Say a prayer or perform a meditation each time you get into the driver's seat. (Gran'ma Enid)
2) 2-second rule for low-speed driving, about 4 seconds on the freeway. (Remember cube impact - Ianto).
3) Invite your party guests for dinner, drinks... and breakfast. (Kris and John's New Years Costume/Pajama Party)
4) Never drive before breakfast. (Erica)
5) Know where your hazard lights, windshield wipers, etc. are before starting the car (Eleanor)
6) Bikes and cars both, come to a full stop at every sign. (Your body responds to practice in driving, just like in sports. And you rely on your body's habits for most of your driving reaction time.) - Ernie
7) Take a Defensive Driving course through the DMV, school, church, or community center. It's a great investment, often free; it boosts your know-how, safety, and confidence; it may also save you money on insurance, help with car rentals, and give you an edge in getting a job or when choosing a vehicle. Please take an extra driver-safety course before purchasing a bigger car "for safety," because you'll be responsible for putting the rest of us at greater risk. (- Erica)
8) Saint Christopher is the patron saint of travellers - he carried Christ across a river. Saint Jude is the patron saint of lost causes. They make a great team if you're running late. - Erica
9) When you calculate your driving time, assume 2 traffic jams, a train, and a moment to stop and admire the rainbow.
10) Breathe deep. Relax. Go the appropriate speed.
11) Roll down a window if you or your passengers get tense. Literally "clear the air."
12) Give thanks for sunshine on the good days, and for everyone who takes good care during the storms.
13)...
14) ...


Thank you for taking the time to read this story, and add your own touch as you pass it on.
Thank you for all that you do to protect our lives every day, and for being part of my road community.
Sometime when you're passing my way, let's take a coffee break together.

Love,
Erica
--
eritter@gmail.com