Chapter 40: MALE DRIVERS
8 THOUGHTS FOR THOSE WHO TAKE DRIVING TOO SERIOUSLY.
"Please God, I'm only 17. The day I died was an ordinary school day.
How I wish I had taken the bus! I remember how I begged Mum to borrow the car.
"Special favour," I pleaded. "All the kids drive."
When the 2:50pm bell rang, I threw all my books in the locker. I was free until 8:40 am tomorrow morning! I ran to the parking lot, excited at the thought of driving a car and being my own boss. Free!
"It doesn't matter how the accident happened. I was cooling off - going too fast, taking crazy chances. But I was enjoying my freedom and having fun.
"The last thing I remember was passing an old lady who seemed to be going awfully slow. "I heard the deafening crash and felt and terrific jolt.
Glass and steel flew everywhere.My whole body seemed to be turning inside out. I heard myself scream."Suddenly I awakened. It was very quiet.
A police officer was standing over me. Then I saw a doctor. My body was mangled. I was saturated with blood. Pieces of jagged glass were sticking out all over. Strange that I couldn't feel anything.
Hey! - don't pull that sheet over my head. I can't be dead, I'm only 17. I've got a date tonight.
"I'm supposed to grow up and have a wonderful life. I haven't lived yet. I can't be dead.
"Why did they have to see me like this? Why did I have to look at Mum's eyes when she faced the most terrible ordeal of her life? Dad suddenly looked an old man. He told the man in charge 'Yes, he's my son'.
"The funeral was a weird experience. I saw all my relatives and friends walk towards the casket. They passed by, one by one, and looked at me with the saddest eyes I've ever seen. Some of my buddies were crying, a few of the girls touched my hand and sobbed as they walked away.
"Please don't bury me. I'm not dead! I have a lot of living to do! I want to laugh and run again - want to sing and dance.
"Please God, I'll be the most careful driver in the whole world.
All I want is one more chance - Please Gold, I'm only 17."
This heartfelt poem was written by John Berrio (deceased in 1997, from Marshfield, Massachusetts). John was a WWII prisoner of war veteran, father of 5 children, and this accident happened to his son's/my father's friend coming home from school one day. John never wanted to make it commercial, he shared it as a letter to Dear Abby (Ann Landers). Subsequently, his own son died in Vietnam a year later, and a middle daughter died at 11 of Cystic Fibrosis.
For these reasons, he was well acquainted with the pain of losing a child.
BUYING A CAR: V8 vs. SAFE
When it comes time to buy a car MALES are often led by the heart not the head.The heart might tell us to buy a big powerful V8 that's sporty, unique, different from what friends have and that goes fast and looks good.The head tells us a popular 4 cylinder will be cheaper to own, insure and operate. And you don’t need the power of a V8 unless regularly towing, driving long distances or carrying 3 or more passengers. Lets consider the relative costs of both cars over 2 years of ownership assuming that the car will travel 60,000 km.
RUNNING COSTS NEW SATRIA 2001 HOLDEN HSV ENGINE SIZE 1.6 L 5.7 L PURCHASE PRICE $20,000 $15,500 EXTRAS $500 $600 TYRES $420 $800 BRAKES $150 $500 SUSPENSION $100 $800 SERVICING $650 $1250 INSURANCE $1250 $1700 FUEL (60,000 km @75c/L) $3600 8L/100km $6500 EXHAUST $50 $150 STEERING/FRONT END $100 $300 MAINTENANCE $100 $600 FINES/CRASHES $400 $800 WHEEL ALIGNMENT $100 $100 REGISTRATION $800 $1200 TOTAL OUTLAY $28,220 $30,800 RESALE VALUE (2 yrs) $9,900 $6,200 MONEY SPENT $12,320 $18,600 COST PER KM 20.5 c/km 31 c/km Obviously finance repayments will need to be considered as well.But the cheaper, older more powerful V8 costs over $6000 more in 2 years to maintain and operate. As you can see it is not cheap to own and run a car. Compared to owning a V8 and driving fast on the road (where nobody gets rewarded) you can purchase a less powerful vehicle, drive safely and the money saved could allow you to afford to get your kicks racing go-karts where you can go places with your driving.
ONE MALE DRIVERS VIEW OF FEMALE DRIVERS
(The views below are not those of the management of Safe Drive Training but are rather used to illustrate the attitudes of other road users)
I was riding to work yesterday when I observed a female driver cut right in front of a pickup truck causing him to have to drive on to the shoulder. This evidently pissed the driver off enough that he hung his head out his window and flipped the woman off.
"Man, that guy is stupid" I thought to myself. I ALWAYS smile nicely and wave in a sheepish manner whenever a female does anything to me in traffic and here's why:
I drive 38 miles each way every day to work, that's 76 miles. Of these, 16 miles each way is bumper to bumper. Most of the bumper-to-bumper is on an 8-lane highway so if you just look at the 7 lanes I am not in, that means I pass something like a new car every 40 feet per lane. That's 7 cars every 40 feet for 32 miles. That works out to be 982 cars every mile, or 31,424 cars.
Even though the rest of the 34 miles is not bumper to bumper. I figure I pass at least another 4000
cars. That brings the number to something like 36,000 cars I pass every day. Statistically half of these are driven by females, that's 18,000.
In any given group of females 1 in 28 are having the worst day of their period. That's 642. According to Cosmopolitan, 70% describe their love life as dissatisfying or unrewarding, that's 449. According to the National Institutes of Health, 22% of all females have seriously considered suicide or homicide, that's 98. And 34% describe men as their biggest problem, that's 33.
According to the National Rifle Association 5% of all females carry weapons and this number is increasing. That means that EVERY SINGLE DAY, I drive past at least one female that has a lousy love life, thinks men are her biggest problem, has seriously considered suicide or homicide, is having the worst day of her period, and is armed.
No matter what she does in traffic, I wouldn't DREAM of flipping her off.
THE PERILS OF BEING A MALE DRIVER
(Written by Joel Neilsen, Managing Director, Safe Drive Training)
