No shortage of ignorance, is there!?
02-15-10, 06:04 AM
#1
No shortage of ignorance, is there!?
http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/olympics/...urn=oly,219520
What's really sad is that there's never any hope of them correcting one another in conversation, because NO ONE ever realizes that a mistake was made! I was reading some of the comments on YouTube on the video of the poor Georgian athlete who died where we were branded as ignorant and third-world because of the design of the luge track. I'll bet if I would have kept reading, I would have come across comments about how flags were at half mast in Atlanta and that the city is mourning the loss of their own.
What's really sad is that there's never any hope of them correcting one another in conversation, because NO ONE ever realizes that a mistake was made! I was reading some of the comments on YouTube on the video of the poor Georgian athlete who died where we were branded as ignorant and third-world because of the design of the luge track. I'll bet if I would have kept reading, I would have come across comments about how flags were at half mast in Atlanta and that the city is mourning the loss of their own.
02-15-10, 01:09 PM
#4
As far as ignorance - yes, there's no hope of correcting stupid people, and I'm sorry to say, Americans are over-represented in that category - too many have been raised with simplistic, good/bad, us/them, USA-good/everyone else bad mindsets). A former luger I've raced with commented on the Vancouver accident, saying he didn't see how the accident could have been predicted, and that it really was a freak error (on the driver's part) and resultingaccident that saw him ejected like that. He had actually had a similar experience in Calgary, in fact, but landed legs first and broke both legs in several places, so I give him credit for appreciating accidents in the sport.
In a related vein, I responded on another forum heavy with Americans concerning the ridiculous brouhaha over sticking Toyota accelerators - day in, day out, I see stories posted and comments about how deadly Toyotas are, and today some guy in prison for driving his '96 Camry through a crowd of people (killing several) now claims it must have been a sticking accelerator - even though his own lawyer didn't try to say he didn't step on the gas, only that it was done in error (the true cause of unintended accelerations - people hitting the gas instead of the brake, then squeezing hard in panic when it doesn't work). The guys own story is full of inconsistencies, it's pretty clear he's a liar and/or opportunist from the newspaper report that started the thread.
I posted a link to the new March Car and Driver, where they found a v6 Camry (like the one involved in the California cop crash that killed a family and touched off the Toyota sticking accelerator controversy), took 16' longer to stop from 70mph with WOT than with closed throttle - and it still stopped shorter than a new Ford Taurus. So even if the throttle on a modern car sticks wide open (which is not suggested for the affected Toyotas), the car can safely and easily be stopped with the brakes - assuming the driver actually used the brakes, and didn't mash the gas by mistake, as is usually the case, and almost certainly so in the California cop's case. This given that there was time to call 911 and say the car was "accelerating with no brakes", which would take longer time-wise than stopping the car, or even shifting to neutral and using the hand brake, assuming the brake hydraulics had failed (no evidence of such in that case). Driver error/driver panic.
What responses did I get: "sure, blame the driver, not the machine" (lots like that), and ones that suggested people like me were the reason elderly people who crash into stores and walls and such and claim "unintended acceleration" were losing their licenses (bizarro, but it is pretty common, and an example where driver error in hitting the gas instead the brake is pretty much always to blame), and of course lots of continued Toyota bashing. I don't even like Toyotas, but I'm sick of hearing all these Americans spin it into a big, deadly controversy.
Deadly controversy, look at GM's 73-91 c/k chassis trucks with sidesaddle gas tanks. Over 1800 people burned to death in the US in accidents involving side impacts, which GM's own testing showed "the tanks split like melons". 66 times the number of deaths (27) attributed to "the barbeque that seats four", the Ford Pinto. GM however, simply refused the NHTSA recall request in 1994 that came following their investigation of the longstanding issue. No recall, no public black eye, apparently. At least it seem to work for GM, heartbeat of America and all.
02-15-10, 02:34 PM
#5
High Comp Booster
iTrader: (4)
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Oakville, Ontario
Posts: 1,907
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
people will use what ever they can to get out of something if they can blame a car for failing they will,
strange part about that camry hitting the cop car is that it was in reverse not drive....
its just like H1N1 people freaked right out becuase the media blew it up just like they blew up the toyota issue.
the part about the car still stopping faster than the ford taurus even at wot kills me hahahahah
you'd think the first thing you would do if the car was doing something you dont like is hit the brakes, after all thats why half the people in the winter end up in the ditch lol
strange part about that camry hitting the cop car is that it was in reverse not drive....
its just like H1N1 people freaked right out becuase the media blew it up just like they blew up the toyota issue.
the part about the car still stopping faster than the ford taurus even at wot kills me hahahahah
you'd think the first thing you would do if the car was doing something you dont like is hit the brakes, after all thats why half the people in the winter end up in the ditch lol
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
Josh83rx7
1st Generation Specific (1979-1985)
1
10-02-15 07:13 AM