Avoiding obstacles while moving at high speed is a reflex action; taking logical steps to stop your car is higher-brain thinking.Themightytom wrote:She was driving well enough to impress the police, but wasn't thinking clearly enough to shift into neutral or stop pressing the accelerator? Really guys?
That said, "HOLY SHIT I'M GOING 120 MPH OH GOD THERE'S A TRAFFIC JAM AHEAD!" is not a good time to spend five seconds going "Hm, I wonder if I can..."
Sneer at her all you want, but once she got moving I bet her brain was kinda busy with that.
Jub, I like you well enough, but you're going off on a stupid again.Jub wrote:That's true, but, and I know it's anecdotal, when I was nearly in a major accident on my bike I didn't freak out and crash or feel a need to call the police. I slammed on the breaks and hoped like hell I would stop in time. How is that any different than doing the same thing in a runaway car and does doing that make me some bike expert who knows far more than the basics of how to ride a bike?
I don't know what kind of accident you were in, but there's a huge difference between "runaway acceleration" and "panic stop slam on the brakes." The latter is a reflex action, we can literally do it without thinking when our brain isn't actively attentive and we're driving on instinct. The brain sees something in front of itself, it pushes the 'stop' button which thousands of hours of experience have taught it to look for under its right foot. Your frontal brain was not necessarily involved in stopping your bike there, unless you actually had to stop and think "I'm about to slam into something, I wonder what I should do?"
Runaway acceleration is a rare failure mode most people encounter once, if that. And it immediately puts you in danger of crashing into things at high speed, which means you need to pay a lot of attention to where the hell you're going. That is a situation where you need higher brain work, and aren't likely to get it.
We'd have to live in a very different civilization, probably one with a lot more taxis.Honestly, it seems like most people are morons who shouldn't be driving. I wonder how many lives would be saved if the law saw things the same way...