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‘That girl is going to get herself killed’ (2022)

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Re: ‘That girl is going to get herself killed’ (2022)

#371

Post by naikrovek »

lmm wrote: post #367
nl wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A) your car was tailgating if you couldn't see those stones soon enough to stop before hitting one. That's not the case. At any distance you can't see the road in front of the car in front of you (assuming equal height cars). As the OP noted "One of those boulders that hit his tires flies off towards us, but luckily we veer and it misses." - this could happen no matter how far away you are.

> At any distance you can't see the road in front of the car in front of you (assuming equal height cars). Which is exactly why you should leave enough stopping distance. > "One of those boulders that hit his tires flies off towards us, but luckily we veer and it misses." - this could happen no matter how far away you are. It could, but you should be driving slowly enough and leaving enough space that you have time t…

thank you.

there is always a car in front of you. always, unless you are the very first driver on the brand new road. keep enough distance from the car ahead of you that you can see the road surface far enough ahead that you can stop.

if you need to see in front of the car ahead of you to have enough stopping time, you are following far too closely.

Re: ‘That girl is going to get herself killed’ (2022)

#372

Post by leaving »

coryrc wrote: post #341
atoav wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If anyone would like to explain why that didn't kill me I'm all ears. What kills people is current, not voltage. With AC having your heart beat 50 times a second can also cause you to die hours or even days after receiving a shock, but even that requires enough current to flow and cross your skin resistance. Go to ghe hospital even if you are alive and feel well after an electrical shock! Your heart may have suffer…

Stone isn't very conductive, so I expect that majorly reduced the current.

Water isn't very conductive, either, unless it has a lot of dissolved salts.

Re: ‘That girl is going to get herself killed’ (2022)

#373

Post by lmm »

rqtwteye wrote: post #116
emtel wrote: post #48

One time, I was driving at night in the Sierra after a storm - roads were covered in snow. It's a drive I've made close to 100 times without incident. Going around a bend, I saw a car in the ditch on the outside of the curve. I stopped the car, put on the hazards, and went to see if there was anyone in the car. As I was about to cross the highway a car come sliding around the bend more or less sideways. I stopped and…

It just shows that life is a long sequence of being lucky. It bet during the course of a week everybody does something that may get them killed if unlucky. Most people are lucky but a few aren’t. I can relate to the shock story. In a school lab I managed to lean on a exposed 220V cable. I remember my arm shaking and hearing a low hum but couldn’t figure out what’s going on. It felt like an eternity until I pulled my…

> It just shows that life is a long sequence of being lucky. It bet during the course of a week everybody does something that may get them killed if unlucky. Most people are lucky but a few aren’t.

That kind of thinking makes people resist taking reasonable safety precautions. The reality is that risk varies a lot; while there's no such thing as perfectly safe, there are things you can do that substantially reduce your risk of dying young, such as driving less.

Re: ‘That girl is going to get herself killed’ (2022)

#374

Post by worthless-trash »

krsdcbl wrote: post #365

Very well written and impactful read. This story is about extreme examples, seemingly about people ignoring obvious dangers and thinking "it won't happen to me!". But the conclusion resonates heavily with me, it bears a very fundamental and important truth that has nothing to do with the extremes of raging torrents or scorching heat pictured: real, actual nature bears fatal risks for anyone, if you are unprepared, un…

Now imagine that in Australia, with snakes, spiders and drop bears.

The amount of tourists that dont die is actually pretty amazing. Some tourists do however follow "google maps" off a dirt road to nowhere, which turns into a dirt road that doesn't exist then they find the hard way that fuel efficiency in knee deep dust or mud isn't as good as the car predicts.

Re: ‘That girl is going to get herself killed’ (2022)

#375

Post by gerdesj »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #355
gghffguhvc wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted due to factual error]

Stopping distance at 65mph -> 525 feet Probably want to get those brakes checked. Stopping distance from 65 MPH should be no more than about 150 feet. Reaction time at 100 feet/second will probably be another 100-150 feet.

150 ft + 150 ft so 300' ... in perfect conditions?

Are we straight and level? What conditions are the tyres in? Wet/dry/oil slick. Brakes in good order? Vehicle size?

I recall driving a fully laden 7.5T box van for my diabetic brother (diabetic, hence he couldn't drive the van) moving house. I followed along the A40 (Oxfordshire), UK) behind him and then he cut off down to a roundabout on a slip road - my lorry wallowed quite dramatically as I followed suit and came to a shuddering stop behind him. Luckily I had six large tyres. If it had been wet, I would have shunted him into a busy roundabout. I would have tried to hit a barrier instead but who knows?

As someone else said: "2 second rule". When you are my age you can even see it!

Re: ‘That girl is going to get herself killed’ (2022)

#376

Post by csharpminor »

muffinman26 wrote: post #332
itsmemattchung wrote: post #26

Some tips on where to begin to learn more about nature and survive in the wild? Maybe an REI class? I'm a little embarrassed to admit that should I ever venture out into the wilderness, I would definitely not survive. I lack basic survival skills and nature would eat me alive. That being said, I always admired folks who could go camping for days (or weeks), who could cook up a warm (and edible) meal over a campfire.

My own personal list: 1. Look up the 10 Essentials and learn what they are/how to use them. 2. Search for Wilderness First Aid (2 day) or Wilderness First Responder (10 day) courses in your area. The focus is on how to assess and treat problems after they've occurred, but in the process you'll learn what the potential dangers are and how to avoid them or notice them early. For example, you can get hypothermia at surp…

Yeah I second the scout handbook. You can also volunteer with your local Troop as a leader if you want. All of the classes offered by my local REI are in the $600-$1200 per weekend range. Scouts got me outdoors 12 weekends a year for about $250 in dues annually (plus a bunch of hours fundraising).

Re: ‘That girl is going to get herself killed’ (2022)

#378

Post by bobthepanda »

skrtskrt wrote: post #368
CamperBob2 wrote: post #364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regardless of what Wikipedia says, if you take almost 1/10 mile to stop at 65 MPH, either you or your car is doing something wrong.

It would be foolish to assume your tires and brakes and reaction time are all functioning at peak capability all the time.

Also, if you need to get into another lane, that in the immediate moment it is safe to merge into it.

Plus, it helps give more leeway to avoid stop and go, which is the cause of phantom traffic jams.

Re: ‘That girl is going to get herself killed’ (2022)

#379

Post by leaving »

switchbak wrote: post #250
angst_ridden wrote: post #208

A lot of folks don't appreciate how quickly normal can turn into dangerous in the wilderness. Because most of the time, it's all so tame. With our specialized gear and tech, there's not much threat ... most of the time. I've been on mountain peaks on nice summer days when storms appear as out of nowhere (not the typical afternoon rains), and there's lightning, high winds, and 50ºF temperature swings. In that kind of…

"It's easy to turn your back on the ocean" - this almost deserves its own category. Other/shipping traffic, waves, weather, lightning (especially risky on a sailboat!), hypothermia ... there's just very little margin for error in some situations, and those concerns can so easily compound. I've done some crazy things in my life, but it's always been the ocean that puts me truly close to death. If there's anything posi…

Contrary to popular belief, lightning is not especially risky on a sailboat.

It is very rare that a metal sailboat mast on a fiberglass boat will be struck by lightning.

The most common occurrence is an EMP that fries all of the electronics as the result of a nearby water strike.

In many, many years of sailing and through many thunderstorms that would melt your shorts just to see them approaching, with lightning all around and no perceptible delay between the flash and the thunder, none of the various sailboats I have been on was ever directly hit by lightning.

Re: ‘That girl is going to get herself killed’ (2022)

#380

Post by afiori »

naikrovek wrote: post #371
lmm wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> At any distance you can't see the road in front of the car in front of you (assuming equal height cars). Which is exactly why you should leave enough stopping distance. > "One of those boulders that hit his tires flies off towards us, but luckily we veer and it misses." - this could happen no matter how far away you are. It could, but you should be driving slowly enough and leaving enough space that you have time t…

thank you. there is always a car in front of you. always, unless you are the very first driver on the brand new road. keep enough distance from the car ahead of you that you can see the road surface far enough ahead that you can stop. if you need to see in front of the car ahead of you to have enough stopping time, you are following far too closely.

The boulder was likely moving far slower than the car ahead and reasonable stopping distance assumes that your obstacle is the car in front of you not an hidden stationary object on the road.

I find it infuriating how much people ignore safe stopping distances but recommending excessively cautious behavior just introduces more chaos on the road.

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