Originally Posted by Bagwan
I watched a documentary about car safety , and one man's opinion made an impression on me .
He was the cat responsible for the air bag , and several other "safety" improvements in vehicles .
His opinion was that all those safety improvements of which you speak make things less safe , not more .
He spoke of how the average skill set behind the wheel is modified by these devices to the point that the driver is duped into believing they were better drivers than they are .The "idiots behind the wheel" are , indeed , the problem .
Speeds increased , but the "accident" was survivable .
Having been involved in the design of a number of these safety devices , he was distinctly forlorn at how it hadn't really helped , and , in a way , had contributed to the problem , so he came up with a device that he hoped would end one of the most foolish of actions performed behind the wheel , the act of tail-gating , or following too closely to the car in front of you .
He had a six inch daggar that he would attach to the centre of the steering wheel , so that the driver would be skewered in the throat if they had to apply the brakes too heavily . That , he figured , would be enough to end tail-gating .
One of our Canadian comedy icons , Red Green , had a caller on his show that was disturbed by tail-gaters , and had a unique solution .
He took an old briefcase and a travel mug , and rivetted them to the roof of his car , making anyone following afraid that they would fly off and hit them if they followed too closely .
Red approved , and told him that he had an old propane tank attached to his roof , and that he never saw anybody in his rear view mirror at all .
