Unless Used Sensibly Cars Are Weapons

[madrobins]

Last evening I heard another torn-metal crunch (not as loud as the last one, but loud) and, wiser this time, went to the front window, where I saw that on the far side of the San Jose/I-280 cut, someone coming off the highway had attempted to take the right off of San Jose onto Rousseau at just-off-the-interstate speeds and had plowed, instead,

Comments

[deborahjross]

Sometimes they are lethal weapons. But there's something about being encased in all that metal that causes folks to forget everything they ever learned -- formally or from experience -- about the laws of physics. And the frailty of human bodies. In other words, it turns them into aggressive jerks.

[madrobins]

The street in front of our house leads down to the southbound I-280 onramp, and there are people who take it at speeds far in excess of the posted 25mph. About ten years ago I was backing cautiously out of our garage--looked down the street, saw nothing, continued, and was hit by a car going fast enough that it spun my car into the foundation of the house next door to ours. The driver had been accelerating while fastening her seatbelt and didn't look up.

Since then, we back into the garage so that we can come out nose first. It's a pain in the butt, but it gives one a slight edge in not getting rammed into by oncoming cars. I've been told there are good and sufficient reasons not to have speed bumps on our street, but they did not convince me.