WP: Unsafe drivers made up larger share of motorists during pandemic, study says

[China]

Road test waiver program called into question as reckless driving increases in Milwaukee

 

Defensive driving is often the first thing teenagers learn in drivers ed, but with the number of reckless driving cases increasing throughout Milwaukee, one pandemic change for road test requirements is being called into question.

 

"I'm going to take drivers education, I'm going to do my six behind the wheel, my six months is up, I'm going to have my parents sign because they know they can't pass that road test," said Stevie Davis, long-time driving instructor at Easy Method Driving school on the city's north side.

 

Davis has been a drivers ed instructor for nearly 18 years.

 

"Look left, look right, check your rear view, glance down at your speedometer, you should be at 30," said Davis.

 

Davis said he's seen it all. "When they gone beat you, they gone beat you, they aren’t gone wait, understand that. I study how they drive," said Davis.

 

Davis called into question the road test waiver program, a waiver put in place by the state for first-time drivers at the start of the pandemic.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

Meanwhile, in Milwaukee...

[China]

The Exceptionally American Problem of Rising Roadway Deaths

 

About a thousand people gathered on a bright morning on the National Mall the Saturday before Thanksgiving for what has become an American tradition: mourning a roadway fatality. With the Capitol in the background and the tune of an ice cream truck looping nearby, the crowd had assembled to remember Sarah Debbink Langenkamp, who was biking home from her sons’ elementary school when she was crushed by a semi truck.

 

Ms. Langenkamp was, improbably, the third foreign service officer at the State Department to die while walking or biking in the Washington area this year. She was killed in August in suburban Bethesda, Md. Another died in July while biking in Foggy Bottom. The third, a retired foreign service officer working on contract, was walking near the agency’s headquarters in August. That is more foreign service officers killed by vehicles at home than have died overseas this year, noted Dan Langenkamp, Ms. Langenkamp’s husband and a foreign service officer himself.

 

“It’s infuriating to me as a U.S. diplomat,” he told the rally in her honor, “to be a person that goes around the world bragging about our record, trying to get people to think like us — to know that we are such failures on this issue.”

 

That assessment has become increasingly true. The U.S. has diverged over the past decade from other comparably developed countries, where traffic fatalities have been falling. This American exception became even starker during the pandemic. In 2020, as car travel plummeted around the world, traffic fatalities broadly fell as well. But in the U.S., the opposite happened. Travel declined, and deaths still went up. Preliminary federal data suggests road fatalities rose again in 2021.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

So the other day as I was sitting at a light a woman at the cross street makes a left into the left hand turn lane next to me (she was supposed to go beyond the median but ended up the wrong way in traffic.

 

Here's a trifecta of stories for you:

 

Tesla on autopilot leads police on chase before driver finally wakes up

 

A driver in Germany had his license taken away after he appeared to have fallen asleep behind the wheel of his Tesla which was on autopilot and lead police on a chase. 

 

On Dec. 29 at about 12 p.m. local time, police spotted a Tesla driving down Autobahn 70 leaving Bamberg, Germany, and heading toward Bayreuth, according to a news release from Bavarian police. 

 

Officers attempted to stop the Tesla, but the vehicle did not pull over. The car was traveling at about 70 miles per hour and did not slow down or speed up during the attempted traffic stop, officials noticed. 

 

The Tesla "kept the same distance from the patrol car in front" as they traveled down the autobahn, police said. 

 

Officers pulled up next to the Tesla’s driver’s side window and noticed the driver, only identified as a 45-year-old male, reclined in his seat with his eyes closed and his hands off the steering wheel. 

 

"This strengthened the suspicion that he had left the controls to the autopilot and had fallen asleep," police said. 

 

The driver eventually woke up after 15 minutes into the pursuit and followed police instructions to pull over. 

 

Police also believed that the driver was under the influence of drugs. 

 

Further investigation revealed that the driver had placed a "so-called steering wheel weight in the footwell" of the car’s driver’s side. 

 

"This device is attached to the steering wheel to trick the vehicle's safety system by pretending that your hand is on the wheel," the news release said. 

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

---------------------------------------------

 

Tesla Plunges Over Cliff at Devils Slide, 4 Rescued

 

A Tesla with four occupants plunged over a cliff Monday on Highway 1 at Devils Slide in San Mateo County, according to the California Highway Patrol and Cal Fire.

 

At about 10:50 a.m. PST, authorities received reports of a Tesla that went off the roadway and down a cliff on southbound Highway 1 south of the Tom Lantos Tunnel, officials said.

 

Two adults and two juveniles were inside the vehicle when it plunged down a cliff at a distance estimated to be 250 feet, a Cal Fire official said.

 

The two juveniles were extricated by helicopter at about 12:20 p.m., and rescuers were still in the process of extricating the two adults, the CHP said.

 

All the victims were removed from the Tesla, officials said.

 

Later Monday afternoon, the San Mateo Sheriff's Office said the two children in a Tesla were unharmed. While the two adults suffered non-life-threatening injuries but were in critical condition earlier in the day.

 

It was not immediately clear what caused the vehicle to go off the roadway.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

--------------------------------------------

 

Video: Suspect stunned with Taser twice by Minnesota trooper after wrong-way crash

 

A driver who was fleeing Minnesota state troopers on foot after getting into a wrong-way crash in the east metro was stunned twice by a Taser before being taken down.

 

The Minnesota State Patrol says it happened on Highway 36 near Hilton Trail, by the city of Pine Springs. The driver fled on foot after the crash, and was stunned twice before being arrested.

 

Click on the link for the full article

And one more...

 

Vehicle slams into Manhattan restaurant leaving at least 18 people injured

 

At least 18 people were injured when a vehicle slammed into a restaurant in Manhattan, an FDNY spokesperson told Fox 5 NY.

 

At around 9 p.m. Monday evening, emergency workers rushed to West 204th Street and Broadway, where an SUV was seen idle on the sidewalk.

 

Pictures from the scene showed an SUV crashed into the side of Inwood Bar & Grill.

 

At least 18 people were taken to an area hospital after the crash, but the fire department said none of the injuries appeared to be life-threatening.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

So an (avoidable) accident happened right in front of me today.  I was sitting at a red light, with a guy in a Mercedes with blackout out trim in front of me.  There were two lanes and a left turn lane in both directions.  Cars were turning left on the green turn arrow.  Then the light turned green.  The guy in the Mercedes gunned it as soon as the light turned green, ignoring the fact that someone was still turning left in front of him and smashed right into the turning car.  Clearly, the car turning left tried to make it after the light had turned, but I'm not sure why the guy in the Mercedes decided it would be a good idea to just drive straight into them.  The car in the lane to our left was smart enough to wait and thus didn't smash into the car too.

[China]

Ghost Bike Memorializing Hit-and-Run Victim at 38th and Sheridan Keeps Getting Run Over

 

On December 9, a driver speeding north on Sheridan Boulevard ran a red light at West 38th Avenue and killed Logan Rocklin, a 34-year-old biker who was riding in the crosswalk. The driver never stopped.

 

In the days that followed, Rocklin's loved ones set up a ghost bike — a memorial featuring a bicycle painted white to commemorate a biker killed by a motor vehicle — on the northeast corner of the intersection. They attached the bike to a cross-button pole.

 

But since then, the ghost bike has been smashed into by a two different vehicles, with the pole getting knocked over, too.

 

Elliott has been visiting the northeast corner of Sheridan and 38th every night since December 15. He holds a sign for passersby that reads "Fatal Hit & Run" at the top. "If you know drivers & any eyewitnesses, come forward. Big reward," the sign continues, with Elliott's phone number listed at the bottom.
 

While he hasn't seen an accident during the time he's been standing on the corner, Elliott has witnessed the negatives associated with America's car-centric culture, such as people running red lights.

 

"People go up onto the curb. People are driving very fast. A lot of people are on their phones," Elliott says, adding that he believes the City of Denver should add arrows to the lanes and ban right turns on red at this particular intersection.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[LD0506]

Every time I see this thread I think "When haven't unsafe drivers made up the majority of traffic?"

 

I installed a dash cam (front and back) in our car and I show my wife things that happen and she's dumbstruck. And of course there's me on the audio saying "Oh yeah, **** that red light" over and over.....

[Die Hard]

6 minutes ago, LD0506 said:

Every time I see this thread I think "When haven't unsafe drivers made up the majority of traffic?"

 

I installed a dash cam (front and back) in our car and I show my wife things that happen and she's dumbstruck. And of course there's me on the audio saying "Oh yeah, **** that red light" over and over.....

I never heard of a rear dash cam. Is that common?

 

I looked at purchasing a dash cam around this time last year… when a white truck attempted to run me off the highway for passing him. My camera flew off the passenger seat when I had to slam on the breaks… so I really couldn’t do anything after that.

 

And after reading product reviews, I wasn’t convinced of the tech yet.

[LD0506]

Just now, Die Hard said:

I never heard of a rear dash cam. Is that common?

 

I looked at purchasing a dash cam around this time last year… when a white truck attempted to run me off the highway for passing him. My camera flew off the passenger seat when I had to slam on the breaks… so I really couldn’t do anything after that.

 

And after reading product reviews, I wasn’t convinced of the tech yet.

 

Quite a few come w/ a second smaller just camera module for facing the rear. I had to snake a cable thru the interior trim to attach it but one of the great purchases I have made in recent years, just for entertainment value alone. Any sudden changes trigger a save mode where it saves a separate running file from the previous 30secs and continuous thereon, so if there's an accident it will have a record of it all.

 

Runs off an SD card, I put a 128gig in so it holds a lot, overwrites the oldest, etc. 

 

We all have our toys

[TheGreatBuzz]

I'm just going to get a phone app to work as a dash cam and install a phone mount so it sits in the right place.

[CobraCommander]

The number of yellow STUDENT DRIVER bumper stickers has exploded in the area and boy do the majority of them SUCK at driving. I was thinking of making red ones the read BAD DRIVER and we can just be done with this charade. 

Edited January 17, 2023 by CobraCommander

[China]

2 hours ago, CobraCommander said:

The number of yellow STUDENT DRIVER bumper stickers has exploded in the area and boy do the majority of them SUCK at driving. I was thinking of making red ones the read BAD DRIVER and we can just be done with this charade. 

 

I think most of them aren't even student drivers, they just put the sticker on so you'll excuse their ****ty driving.

[China]

 

[China]

Suspect in hit-and-run that killed teen had 164 traffic violations dating back 3 decades, records show

 

The suspect in the hit-and-run that killed 16-year-old Sara Yara as she walked to school has a lengthy record of traffic offenses and has been driving without a license for years, despite frequent stops by police.

 

Mitchel Miyashiro, 45, was released shortly after turning himself into police on Thursday.

 

Yara’s family was public about their grief when they visited the scene on Kapiolani Boulevard in hopes of quick justice for her death. Miyashiro’s release pending further investigation may be hard to accept, but it is normal in vehicular homicide cases.

 

A Hawaii News Now examination of Miyashiro’s traffic record turned up virtually every offense except drunk driving.

 

Court records going back to 1996 show at least 164 traffic infractions and crimes.

 

In the last five years, court records show, he was stopped 12 times for allegedly driving without a license. He was convicted six times for the offense, which is a traffic crime, but was never sentenced to time in jail.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

This has been my experience with my children.  My oldest son, now 23, just got his license last August.

 

Why aren't teenagers driving anymore?

 

When Dawn Johnson was a teenager growing up in Northern Virginia in the 1990s, she remembers counting down the days until she could start driving. The freedom to see her friends whenever she wanted was tantalizing, she says: "I wanted to get out of my house."

 

So when her son, Derek, turned 15 nearly 10 months ago, she and her husband thought he might feel the same. "We were like, Derek, don't you want to do this?" she says. "And he was like, 'Nah. I'm good.' And we just - we did not understand it."

 

Driving a car was once a widely coveted rite of passage, but a rising number of kids no longer see it that way: 60 percent of American 18-year-olds had a driver's license in 2021, down from 80 percent in 1983, according to data from the Federal Highway Administration. In that same period, the number of 16-year-olds with licenses dropped from 46 percent to 25 percent. Today's driving-age teens are navigating a very different world, filled with new complexities and anxieties.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Captain Wiggles]

My seven year old nephew thinks driving is to complicated and he'll have to Uber everywhere he wants to go once he's older. 🤭

[Fergasun]

As a parent of a teenage driver. 

 

I $$$$ just $$$$ don't $$$$ know $$$$ why ... 

 

We live in a society where college and cars are barely affordable for our kids.  The middle class is getting squeezed.  Wow, they are watching their parents get twisted, burdened and screwed by "responsibilty" of living.  Why is there a mental health crisis?  

[The Evil Genius]

The downside to getting a license later is that I believe most insurance companies still do not discount the monthly premium for that driver until they have 10+ years of a license. 

 

So even if they won't drive, it's probably beneficial to get the driver's license. 

Edited February 21, 2023 by The Evil Genius

[China]

Woman driving with bad brakes sentenced for killing Pa. firefighter in crash

 

A woman from New Jersey has received her prison sentence after pleading guilty to charges connected to a crash that killed a firefighter.

 

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Jacquelyn Walker, 64, was sentenced to between 12 and 24 years in state prison for driving her vehicle into one police officer and three firefighters, killing Thomas Royds, 48, of the Belmont Hills Fire Department.

 

Walker told investigators that she was lost trying to drive home the night of the crash, and swerved onto the shoulder of the highway to avoid fire trucks that were responding to a previous vehicle accident on Interstate 76. Walker said she only noticed the first responders that she collided with “at the last second.”

 

Walker told investigators she been previously pulled over three separate times by police from three different departments on the trip. Prosecutors said that her vehicle was in a serious state of disrepair, including faulty brakes, and her decision to continue driving it showed a disregard for the safety of others.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

California Driver Somehow Crashed Their Car Into the Second Story of a House

 

We’ve had a number of posts about people crashing into houses lately, from Pete Davidson losing control of his Mercedes to a Jeep driver hitting a house so hard, it knocked the house off of its foundation. But this latest one is a real head-scratcher. Normally, drivers who hit people’s houses only hit the first floor because that’s where the road usually is. But one California driver somehow managed to launch their car into the second floor of the house they hit.

 

 

KRON4 reports that the crash in question took place in Placer County, California, a relatively small county between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe. And while the basics of what happened are clear — a Subaru Outback ended up on the second story of someone’s house — we still don’t know exactly how the car got up there. You can probably assume speed was a factor, but officials have yet to explain how the car got airborne or the condition of the driver at the time of the crash.

 

The good news is, no one in the house was hurt. 

 

Interestingly, this wasn’t the only car to go airborne and land on the roof of a house in the last week. On Saturday, a driver in Yadkinville, North Carolina reportedly lost control of his car and “went up a parked car in the driveway like a ramp and crashed through the roof of a home.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

[Mr. Sinister]

I've def noticed a uptick in the crazy/****ty since coming back here last year. Don't know what it is exactly. Granted, most of my driving is at night, when visibility is lower, and ppl may be inebriated, but it's bad. Real bad. Even truckers seem to be swerving all over the place now.

[China]

 

[China]

This is the most dangerous time to be a pedestrian in over 40 years. These charts explain why.

 

From behind the wheel, cars and trucks today are safer than ever before. But for people on the street, vehicles haven’t been this dangerous in over a generation.

 

A study of State Highway Safety Offices data released by the Governor’s Highway Safety Association in June assessed American drivers killed at least 7,500 pedestrians in 2022. That’s the most of any year since 1981. Missing data from Oklahoma means the final number is likely even higher.

 

Experts attribute the increase of deaths on faster driving speeds, a lack of pedestrian-friendly road infrastructure and consumer tastes shifting towards increasingly heavier and high-riding trucks and SUVs.

 

“The vehicle has evolved to better protect the people inside of it, but it hasn’t evolved to protect people on the outside,” said Pam Shadel Fischer, the GHSA’s Senior Director of External Engagement.

 

Pedestrian deaths are more common in southern states with warmer weather, which traditionally are where people are more likely to be out and about and potentially walking or running, Fischer said.

 

The overall rate of pedestrian deaths per 100,000 residents was 2.28 in 2022, according to the GHSA. But pedestrians were killed more frequently per capita in most of the Sunbelt states, especially Arizona and New Mexico.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

My story of the day:  I'm sitting at a light, 4 cars back.  The light turns green.  The guy in front doesn't go, I wait a moment and he still doesn't go, and none of the other cars seemed to care.  Seeing that there was no reason for him not to go, I honked.  He still didn't move.  I honked several more times.  He still didn't move.  He didn't appear to be on the phone, but appeared to be having an animated conversation with the person in the passenger seat.  Finally, seeing that there were not cars coming, I just went around all the other cars and went through the light.  The guy looked at me as I went by, seemingly confused as to what was going on.  The light then turned red, and none of the cars, including the guy in front moved or got through the light.  

[China]

So, I just got home.  On the way, I saw a number of people without their headlights on, despite the fact that the sun was setting, plus the fact that it was dark because it was overcast and raining.  One of them, when I pulled up along side him, I noticed his driver's window was down.  So I rolled down my passenger window and yelled at him to turn his lights on.  Startled (partly because he was looking at his phone), he yelled back "Hey!" but didn't turn his lights on.  We moved on, but I got beside him a couple more times trying to tell him to turn his lights on.  He just looked an me and smiled in a sort of bemused and confused way.  I don't think he understood the message I was trying to convey.  God save us from the morons on the road.

[skinsmarydu]

6 minutes ago, China said:

So, I just got home.  On the way, I saw a number of people without their headlights on, despite the fact that the sun was setting, plus the fact that it was dark because it was overcast and raining.  One of them, when I pulled up along side him, I noticed his driver's window was down.  So I rolled down my passenger window and yelled at him to turn his lights on.  Startled (partly because he was looking at his phone), he yelled back "Hey!" but didn't turn his lights on.  We moved on, but I got beside him a couple more times trying to tell him to turn his lights on.  He just looked an me and smiled in a sort of bemused and confused way.  I don't think he understood the message I was trying to convey.  God save us from the morons on the road.

Ikr?  I had it going on this afternoon, awful thunderstorms. 

There's a special place in hell for people who drive silver or grey vehicles that don't FOLLOW THE LAW.  I have a silver truck, (and automatic lights)...but if it's raining I turn them on manually just in case the sensor doesn't pick up the "darker skies".