I think the saddest auto accidents for me to hear about was when I learned a kid I went to high school with died in a crash. He was supposed to graduate that year. I knew his mother, who was a teacher at the school and an overall nice person, and I met the guy a couple of times. I used to grade his papers as a TA too. It’s just devastating to think someone is cut down like that without getting to see the wide breadths and deep depths of life. Plus the sort of horrible grief his mother probably went through. Nobody should ever have to go through that.
One of my childhood friends and first girl I ever kissed was killed by a drunk driver in a hit and run.
My dad’s best friend died with three other people in the car when he crashed off a bridge driving drunk in high school in the 70s.
I’m literally only here because my dad happened to be busy that evening.
a girl i went to high school with was in a car crash just a year after graduation. coma for over a month, severe brain damage. major cognitive impairments and requiring constant at home care from her parents, one of whom died after about a decade of doing that. everything about the aftermath is emotionally crushing.
sometimes it feels like one of the great riddles of improving and lengthening my life is trying to structure it so that i don’t have to drive much at all.
hate to be a spoilsport but it’s more to not be around cars. you can walk or cycle fine and that saves you from some heart problems but it does usually highly increase the chance some moron is going to kill you
i guess I should clarify that I am not looking to have a 60 minute pedestrian commute alongside a road either. that’s why it’s a puzzle and not a simple substitution. I have been pedestrian-ing for several years now and know/experience the risks with open eyes.
by “not driving” I mean, not having a car/car adjacent commute. I mean being far removed from cars for many/most days of the week. i.e. living where I work, where I mostly eat/kitchen gardening, etc, having near access to passenger rail for longer distance trips.
