Wednesday
Nov302005
A Special Place in Hell
Wednesday, November 30, 2005 at 07:33PM
They should have a special place in hell for people who drive close behind you. The dammed should be followed at all times by a specially chosen demon with hot bad breath who has been trained to stay exactly one inch behind them and crash into them whenever they stop walking.
I was driving along today on a surface that I wasn't entirely sure of, in my shiny new car. And a buffoon comes up behind me in a BMW and decides to see if they can actually see themselves in my rear view mirror. If I had needed to brake I'm sure we would have had an unpleasant and expensive "two become one" moment. Fool.
In the Good Old Days (tm) we had a Ford Cortina which had a towing bracket on the back made of angle iron. Think the kind of stuff they use to hold up the girders in buildings. In this situation we were without fear. When somebody drove into to the back there would be an enormous crash and a cloud of steam from their shattered radiator. We'd get out and notice a tiny scratch on the ironwork. They'd have to buy a whole new car front. And quite right too.
I was driving along today on a surface that I wasn't entirely sure of, in my shiny new car. And a buffoon comes up behind me in a BMW and decides to see if they can actually see themselves in my rear view mirror. If I had needed to brake I'm sure we would have had an unpleasant and expensive "two become one" moment. Fool.
In the Good Old Days (tm) we had a Ford Cortina which had a towing bracket on the back made of angle iron. Think the kind of stuff they use to hold up the girders in buildings. In this situation we were without fear. When somebody drove into to the back there would be an enormous crash and a cloud of steam from their shattered radiator. We'd get out and notice a tiny scratch on the ironwork. They'd have to buy a whole new car front. And quite right too.
Reader Comments (1)
Have a towbar fitted?
I have. And I have already used it for this very purpose. It was an ambulance of all things too. Mind you, a French one. In France.
I am now considering having one fitted on the front too as, just to avoid my rear one, someone reversed into me a few months back. I was stationary and not very close either.
However last week a man very kindly avoided running into the back of me, by running into the side of me.
Obviously, what we really need is an intelligent towbar that can rotate to any point on the car towards which another car is approching.
Can your students use this as a design project maybe?