interestingly enough, our local paper ran an article titled something like 'Patrol Speeder Crackdown Saves Lives', and in the article they had a statistical breakdown of the causes of the accidents in the downtown freeway area under consideration. Their own statistics showed the leading causes were in fact NOT speeding (though the article repeated this long-disproven chestnut again and again), but rather improper lane changes, failire to signal, driver distraction, drivers going too SLOW, driver intoxication, and only then at the end, speeding - and it was a tiny percantage. Many other reputable previous national studies have shown it is not speeding which is dangerous - it is bad driving. Like the idiots who, every day cut in front of me without a turn signal, barely three feet ahead of me, driving 15-20 miles slower than me. It's why I don't own a gun - they'd be dead and I'd be in prison!

And don't forget the idiots who forgot they had a trailor behind their car when changing lanes right in front of you.

Why You Should Drive Like A Maniac
 

Especially for Eric http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ilies/poke.gif.

Tongue in cheek, of course.

Driving like a maniac could also save your life. Authorities like the Department of Motor Vehicles, the federal government, and your driver's-ed teacher say that slower driving is safer for you, but the truth is that driving faster and more aggressively will save your neck.

The number-one federal government authority on automobile safety, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, claims that speeding is "one of the most prevalent factors contributing to traffic crashes." But their own figures suggest that only 30 percent of cars involved in fatal crashes in 2005 were speeding. Speeding is therefore the safer way to drive 70 percent of the time. The reason? It's easier to get away from the idiots causing all the accidents if you're going faster.

The maniac knows there are so many more benefits to going faster versus idling behind some chump. Here are two important health-related reasons to drive as fast as you can:

Drivers who spend a significant amount of time behind the wheel face a greater risk of developing skin cancer, according to a recent study by the St. Louis University School of Medicine. The next time you pass someone on the shoulder and they flip you off, shout back that you're simply trying to avoid getting melanoma.

Each hour spent in a car causes a 6 percent increase in the likelihood of obesity, as recently calculated in a paper published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine. When a police officer pulls you over for doing 62 in a school zone, tell him you don't want to be another statistic in America's obesity epidemic.
As you can see, driving like a maniac is good for you. And while you probably don't care that it might be good for society, you at least have greater justification for your actions when confronted by others who care about that sort of thing, like police officers, traffic court judges, or your mother.

Susan

Great tongue-in-cheek justification! http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...llinghappy.gif

Aren't statistics fun! http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ilies/clap.gif

I've always thought that if you drove slightly aggressively, you were much better off at being able to avoid accidents with other vehicles than if you were a bit passive and hesitant. Whenever I try to be more 'law abiding', some idiot tries to run me off the road. Also those I've observed who are being too careful have come very near to causing more accidents than those who are nutty (no names revealed in this post http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ilies/wink.gif ), especially when it comes to jamming on the breaks when they see a police car and go much slower than the speed limit

I plead the 5th!

actually eric, I have to say that for someone that likes to drive quickly, you are very conscientious about always using your turning signal to change lanes! http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ilies/wink.gif

It's the law! http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ies/tongue.gif

Maybe the 30 percent crashes were caused mostly by drivers going 60 mph in 20 mph zones. So the speeders may still be responsible for many crashes. http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ies/crazy2.gif

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