Guest Post by starfcker
Our good friend Eric Peters often rails against the idea of safety mandates on automobiles sold in the United States. His argument is that safety equipment raises prices and diminishes choices, while adding weight and diminishing fuel economy.. I personally like as safe a car as possible, as long as it looks nice, and is fun to drive. I live in a very crazy fast driving metro (south Florida), so I see all kinds of nasty ways people can fuck up in a car. And I am always grateful at how many people not only live, but emerge from crumpled tangles of metal in one piece, seemingly ready to do it again.
Speed kills, or at least it used to, which can suck in a place where everybody drives like a bat out of hell. I credit the federal mandates and the brilliant engineers who figure this stuff out with saving countless lives that would otherwise be snuffed out in an instant. Randomly. Anyway, i’m always amazed at just how good cars have become, and how good your average driver is down here, because there are actually a lot less wrecks than there ought to be, due to the combination of high speed and a large immigrant population new to the finer points of automotive handling at such speeds.
Continue reading “Eric, this is why it’s important”
