EDITORIAL

In the wake of the over 100 deaths and 400 injuries that have been attributed to the failure of the Firestone tires mounted on Ford Explorers, there has been an outcry for change and lawsuits will abound for years.  The NHTSA had agreed in 1988, to develop federal rollover standards for SUV’s but gave up a few years later and now in the wake of lives lost, they are again attempting to develop a meaningless index.  Let me be VERY clear on this.  Everyone is clamoring for governmental control of these vehicles and tire standards…but EVERYONE is ignoring the real problem…..that the American driver basically sucks behind the wheel and is the main cause of their own injuries and death!!
Raise your hand if you think you are a lousy driver.  Not too many hands eh?  Keep them up if you think you are basically a selfish bastard.  Hhm…even less (but a few).  Ok…get ready because here come both barrels:  Smart people get stupid behind the wheel….nice people get mean….selfless people turn 100% selfish once the car door shuts.  The guy who would hold the door open for a lady will not think twice about cutting her off on the freeway, and the lady of class and intelligence, when she’s sitting in her Lexus, FINGERS START FLYING!  We live in a time where driver’s education has been cut by our and many other Governors.  Any dolt with $15 can get a drivers license with no meaningful training to operate that lethal weapon.  And tell me how in the world, the soccer mommy or daddy is qualified to drive 6-7 thousand pounds of SUV Truck? ANSWER: they aren’t, but that doesn’t stop stupid parents from killing their own kids in these vehicles.  The #1 cause of child and teen death are CARS and way too often, the instrument of death was a thoughtless parent breaking traffic laws to get to the next red light sooner, or the teen who didn’t belong behind the wheel in the first place!
So, the real cause of deaths and injuries in the Firestone Tire tragedies is the fact that stupid drivers chose to put their asses in vehicles that are WAY more unsafe for themselves and their kids….these are called TRUCKS/SUV’s, which have lower safety standards and roll like dice.   And when the tire tread separates, and the vehicle wants to roll, do they have the first clue how to stop a vehicle from losing center of gravity and rolling? Not a wit. They have no training whatsoever in learning how to control stops, skids, rolls or any other direction that a vehicle in motion tends to do because of a little thing called PHYSICS. ABS is a GREAT example of the lack of training of the American driver.  We invented ABS stop counteract the untrained driver’s compulsion to slam on their brakes in an emergency stop (the WORST thing to do if you really want the vehicle to stop).  Well, it turns out that ABS is a big loser because the American Driver, when the ABS kicks in an automatically pumps the brakes, then start to pump the brakes THEMSELVES thinking the ABS is not working….and now they are completely brakeless!!!! And the last piece of stupid, 84% of these deaths were totally preventable had they just been wearing a seat belt.

Until we start taking driving seriously in this country….have “German” type schooling, training and testing, then we will continue to blame the car companies and tire companies (who SHOULD share the blame) and not point the finger in the mirror.  We would rather have a cell phone in car than drive bored or out of touch with our money making desires.  We would rather have a cup holder than an air bag.  In the meantime, lets not complain when it DOES happen to us or someone we love.  We brought it on ourselves.