XPost: rec.arts.sf.written, rec.arts.sf.science   
   From: dtravel@sonic.net   
      
   On 1/19/2014 9:34 PM, Your Name wrote:   
   > In article , Robert Bannister   
   >  wrote:   
   >> On 19/01/2014 7:52 pm, Thomas Koenig wrote:   
   >>> Robert Bannister  schrieb:   
   >>>>   
   >>>> In fact, towards the end of the 19th century the traffic situation with   
   >>>> horse-drawn vehicles was as bad if not worse than today. There are a few   
   >>>> photographs and drawings around of grid lock in London and elsewhere.   
   >>>> Road accidents were also very common. No speedometers or speed limits   
   >>>> back then.   
   >>>   
   >>> There were also a lot of cases of sudden acceleration (many more than   
   >>> with today's cars).  Traffic accidents were much more frequent as   
   >>> a result.   
   >>   
   >> Although car drivers are no better and often worse than carriage   
   >> drivers, at least cars don't get spooked by trivial noises or movements.   
   >   
   > Maybe not, but a driver can be spooked and lose control of the car.   
   > Plus a car usually weighs quite a bit more and goes faster ...   
   > therefore causing more damage.   
   >   
   > Cars can also of course have unexpected problems, whether mechanically   
   > or due to road / weather conditions (for example if the driver doesn't   
   > know or see oil spilt on the road). Or the driver for some reason   
   > health reason loses control (heart attack, passes out, etc.)   
   >   
   > There was a bus driver recently who for some "medical reason" decided   
   > he would turn his buss full of passengers around in the middle of the   
   > motorway and go back across the Harbour Bridge on the wrong side.   
   >   
   >   
   >   
   >> It's also quite rare these days to see a wheel come off.   
   >   
   > Rare, but not impossible - especially if whoever changed the tyre   
   > didn't tighten the nuts properly. You do quite often see bits of   
   > shreaded truck tyres along the side of the motorway too.   
   >   
   > My father used to work on a busy main road and one day they saw a truck   
   > tyre coming bouncing down the driveway and hit their buidling. The   
   > speed it was going ti had obviously come off a passing truck. Luckily   
   > it was only a factory wall and they were in the offices on the second   
   > floor, otherwise it would have gone straight through any window and   
   > would have seriously hurt or killed someone.   
   >   
   > Only a few weeks ago, there was a tourist killed here in New Zealand   
   > driving when something (the police still don't know what) from a   
   > passing car went though his windscreen.   
   >   
   > Then there are morons, usually kids, who throw rocks at cars from   
   > motorway over-bridges (which has killed at least one person in the   
   > past).  X-(   
   >   
   I've seen the tread of a truck tire on the trailer of a tractor-trailer   
   rig peel off on the highway.  It must have gone about 50 feet in the air   
   before it came back down.  Caused a bit of a traffic jam as drivers   
   tried to avoid being under it as it did so.   
      
   --   
   The 'Enterprise' crew in the 2009 Star Trek are adrenaline addicted,   
   hyper-active teenagers with ADD whose Ritalin got replaced with   
   methamphetamine, displaying a level of discipline that a Somali pirate   
   wouldn't tolerate.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)