When Does a Crash Take Place?

Following any car crash, comes the investigation or question inquiring why that specific crash took place.  The answers are as varied as the people you ask.  Consider a car strategically parked on its roof a few hundred feet away from a highway. 

The police will describe the cause of the crash as “sudden road departure”, the insurance company as “own fault”, the coroner will discover the driver was drunk, and GreenRoad Safety Center reports may indicate the driver was a real hazard months before the crash.

For the family of the person involved, or the driver himself, being able to answer “why this crash happened” will be difficult.  The causes may be many, but none can change the end result.  In the face of tragedy, does it really matter?

So since the “why” is illusive or has very little impact on turning time back and preventing the crash, I suggest we focus on the “when” instead.

And by when I am referring to the moment the crash started taking place.  So when does a crash begin? Is it at the moment of impact? Or maybe a few seconds before, when the driver started losing control over his car? Or maybe it starts when he started dosing off a few miles before the crash?

I firmly believe each at-fault crash starts at the moment a driver picks up the car keys from the coffee table.

If at that moment they are tired, drunk, distracted, overly happy, late, angry, or in any other negative form of physical or state of mind, and still decide to go on and drive – that is when the crash begins.  Figuring out exactly what happened at the moment of impact – is not really interesting.  The interesting fact is that they chose to drive in a state of mind that puts themselves and others at risk.

Last weekend I was driving off to a poplar forest near our house with my family.  Beautiful winter day.  A chance of some warmth, breaking through the light clouds in the sky. 

Next to us drove another car with a family and their young kids.  In the front sits dad and grandma.  Both secured to their seatts with a seat belt.  In the back were two kids in safety seats.  In the center back row, sat mom.  In the lap of mom, without a seat belt, sat a one year old baby.

Now, assuming the mother was not Britney Spears, what on earth would cause a mother do a thing like this? With all of the TV commercials about car safety, by now I thought everybody got the bit that even a small baby will increase its weight to something equivalent to three football players, should the car come to a sudden stop.  No motherly love will be able to restrain him at this point. 

So why did mom take such an unnecessary risk? Who knows.  Maybe they were in a hurry.  Maybe they promised to take the neighbor’s kids with them and there was no more room in the back seat.  Maybe they just didn’t think about what they were doing.

There was no ill intent in what they did.  But there was also no thinking.  Should this family be involved in a crash, and something would happen to that baby (because I assure you that if they allowed themselves to drive with their baby this way once, they will do it again) no police report explaining “why” would make any difference.  The “when” however, would be very clear.  This crash started the moment mom or dad decided it was okay to drive this way.

This example may be grim, but maybe it will help you think before you pick up the keys from the coffee table:

1.      No journey is worth your life.

2.      When angry, drunk, tired, or distracted, you don’t belong behind the wheel.

3.      Cars have safety features, use them.

4.      Stop the next crash from taking place by deciding before you enter the car that you are going to drive in a safe manner.  And then, “when’s” or “why’s” will less likely have to be answered.

Set your mind to driving safely, it’s worth it,

Hod