THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, October 22, 1996 TAG: 9610220007
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A13 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: OPINION
SOURCE: George Hebert
LENGTH: 52 lines
When it comes to unsafe highway behavior, one safe assumption is that a lot of people drive too fast because they don't really understand what could happen to them in a crash.
With this reality in mind, the Tidewater Motorist, published by the Tidewater Automobile Association, used a recent issue to present some illuminating (and scary) information on accident impacts at various speeds.
And while speed figures were crucial, another set of figures was just as important - and something of a surprise. These figures were measurements of heights.
For instance, the TAA article informs us, a crash at a speed of 80 miles per hour (say, two cars collide head-on when each is traveling 40 miles per hour, or one car going 80 hits a wall) would involve the same shattering forces on any and all cars and occupants as a fall from a certain height. In this case, that height would be 215 feet.
Chances of fatal results would be more than two out of three in such a wreck, according to statistics also included in the article.
Even a 40-mile-per hour impact would bring two cars (each doing 20, say) or car and wall together with the force of a fall from 54 feet (about one in seven chances of death and one in two chances of serious injury).
The Triple A article warns that a driver can be involved in one of the listed high-speed crashes even if that driver is not speeding. This is a grim fact for law-abiders to keep in the back of their minds, a reminder to everyone to drive carefully and defensively. But the stronger message in the report is aimed at those who do or might speed, and the cautionary words surely ought to make an impression.
Risks have a way of fading when you're behind the wheel, and speeds have a way of edging up. But most people have enough experience of life's hazards to be able to grasp quite readily the consequences of headlong plunges from high places. The speed-into-height conversions are frightening on their very face. That should be true even for those who make their livings, say, by painting steeples or otherwise exposing themselves to possible falls, but who are skilled and confident enough to avoid missteps and mistakes.
At the opposite emotional pole are the many others who have a special, panicky dread of heights. Climbing a ladder to clean out a gutter only a dozen feet or so from the ground is, for example, a traumatic ordeal for me. For those of us with this problem, the AAA comparisons have particular force, what with all that our imaginations have told us about the consequences of falls.
In fact, I suspect that those drivers in this category are numerous enough - all on their own and all other factors aside - to make the AAA's strategy more than worthwhile. MEMO: Mr. Hebert, a former editor, lives in Norfolk. by CNB