A Risk Worth Taking?

Recently I looked up the word, accident, in the Webster's New World Dictionary. This is what it said: 1. a happening that is not expected, foreseen or intended 2. an unpleasant and unintended happening, sometimes resulting from negligence that results in injury, loss, damage, etc. 3. fortune; chance 4. an attribute or quality that is not essential 5. an irregular formation 6.an unforeseen event that occurs without anyone's fault or negligence.

Most car crashes are not intended and indeed are unpleasant but I do not consider them accidents. Most car crashes are caused by people. People, who speed, people who do not wear their seat belts or people who use drugs or drink alcohol and get behind the wheel of a car. These people kill themselves and others.

Life would be very boring if we never took risks or accepted a challenge. Some risks are worth taking, others are not. When you combine risk with recklessness you are gambling with your life and the lives of others. Driving while impaired, speeding or not wearing your seat belt is combining risk with recklessness and the results could be deadly.

I found the following article in a package of materials from ICBC. I think this graphic explanation of what happens when someone is not wearing a seatbelt is worth sharing.

HOW TO DIE IN O.7 OF A SECOND

Do you know what happens in the first fatal seconds after a car going 55 mph hits a solid object head-on?

In the first tenth of a second: the front bumper and grill collapse.

In the second tenth of a second: The hood crumples, rising and striking the windshield as the spinning rear wheels lift from the ground. Simultaneously, fenders begin wrapping themselves around the solid object and, although the car's frame has been halted, the rest of the car is still going 55 miles per hour. Instinct causes the driver to stiffen his legs against the crash.

In the third tenth of a second: The driver's legs snap at the knee joints. The steering wheel starts to disintegrate and the steering column aims for the driver's chest.

In the fourth tenth of a second: Two feet of the front end of the car are wrecked, the rear end of the car is still moving 35 miles per hour and the driver is still moving at 55 miles per hour.

In the fifth tenth of a second: The driver is impaled on the steering column and blood rushes to his lungs.

In the sixth tenth of a second: The impact has built up to the extent that the emblem on the bottom of the driver's shoe is now permanently embossed on the brake pedal before the pedal shears off and the shoes are ripped from his feet.

The car frame buckles in the middle and the driver's head plunges through the windshield. The rear wheels, still spinning, fall back to the pavement.

In the seventh tenth of a second: Door hinges rip loose, the doors fly open, and the seat breaks free striking the driver from behind.

In the eighth tenth of a second: The inertia is spent and objects settle back into the driver's compartment, the driver's head is decapitated as he re-enters through the broken windshield. He won't know it, because he died one tenth of a second ago.

Now will you buckle your seatbelt?

Isn't it a tragedy that so many people die or suffer serious injuries because of a bad choice in such a simple matter? Something as simple as buckling up a seatbelt can end or alter the course of a life. Speeding or driving while impaired increases the risk even further. If the driver crashes under those circumstances is it an accident or the expected and foreseen result of a bad decision? You already know what I think.

Some risks are worth taking, others are not. Please choose wisely.

Joan Parsons
President
Rid Road of Impared Drivers

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