The Miracle Mile

--LeMans Grand Prix d'Endurance,
Leroy Neiman

Ole Black's my truck's name.
She's held together
By BF Good tires
And bailing wire
--The Truck Song, Lyle Lovett

Oncoming car went out of control
It crushed my baby
And it crushed my soul
--7-11, the Ramones

And he sideswiped nineteen neat parked cars,
Clipped off thirteen telephone poles,
Hit two houses, bruised eight trees,
And Blue-Crossed seven people
--30,000 Pounds of Bananas, Harry Chapin

"You are now entering the most
dangerous place on earth:
A PUBLIC HIGHWAY"
--sign on main highway in Long Binh, Vietnam (1970)
____________________

There are worse things than terrorists if you're worried about losing your life in The Homeland©. Hubris makes us think terrorists are hiding behind every bush, but the people most likely to kill you are sitting behind the wheel of everything from compact cars to 18-wheelers.

The greatest danger facing the Average American is the Average American -- behind the wheel of a vehicle, (mis)handling firearms, not cleaning their hands before handling food (etc.), not doing the right thing in a medical setting -- you name it, your fellows will dispatch you (or themselves) faster than you can say Speedy Gonzales.

Per these accidents and mistakes, drugs (often legal) and alcohol are often a factor, so in a sense these deaths are done with the blessings of the state. The medical errors, et. al., you may never hear about, but the crashes occur every day. Here's a recent local one where the truck driver was charged with DUI manslaughter:

"James Perry Wyrosdick — who has a long history of traffic citations and whose truck shouldn’t have been on the road because of out-of-service violations — was high on methamphetamine, marijuana and prescription pills when his flat-bed log truck crossed into oncoming traffic, said Sgt. Aaron Stephens of the Florida Highway Patrol. It struck two vehicles, killing Wendy Jackson, who worked at Gilchrist Elementary School, and injuring two others. Wyrosdick suffered minor injuries."

"Stephens said fatigue was another factor in the crash. Commercial drivers are allowed to drive up to 11 hours in a 14-hour period, said Lt. Jeff Frost, spokesman for the Florida Department of Transportation’s Motor Carrier Compliance Office. The investigation showed Wyrosdick had been driving about 12 hours and was still 45 minutes away from his destination in Blountstown" (Arrest Made in Fatal Leon County Crash).

Ranger drives a small car and always feels over-matched in these road wars. The sight of a truck grill bearing down on him instills fear in my mind and body. It is common at 70 m.p.h. to have an 18-wheeler two car lengths behind; this is a form of terror, if not terrorism. The old rule of thumb for minimum safe driving distance was one car length for each 10 m.p.h. of speed. Therefore, at 70 m.p.h. the next car should be seven car lengths away. For an 18-wheeler it might be more, as they cannot stop on a dime.

Of course, tailgating is not reserved for truckers. We see motorcycles clipping our bumpers while passing daily: How could the cycle stop in the event of a blowout? With no auto exoskeleton, this behavior is pure folly.

There are things you should fear that you cannot kill with a rifle, and this is not a Stephen King novel.

Pick Your Poison

With your big empty purse,
Every week it gets worse,
At least your breasts cost more than hers
--Fuck Me Pumps, Amy Winehouse

Everybody gets so much information
all day long that they lose their common sense
--Gertrude Stein
_______________

Let us think of things that are more dangerous than terrorism in our lives, things that cross our radar with relatively little attention:

• Medical mistakes: Misdiagnoses, incorrect and incompatible medications, hospital infections, botched surgeries. 100,000 of us die annually as a result of medical malpractice and complications.

• Automobile accidents: Over 42,000 people die annually in road accidents in the U.S. As one study noted, the "equivalent of a plane load or more of people died on the roads" daily (Car Crashes Kill 40,000 Every Year). Motorcycle rider fatalities continued their nine-year increase, reaching 4,810 in 2006, accounting for 11% of total vehicular fatalities (exceeding the number of pedestrian fatalities for the first time since the NHTSA began collecting fatal motor vehicle crash data in 1975.)
  

• Tobacco-related deaths: 443,000 people die in the U.S. annually as a result of primary, secondary and tertiary-related smoking effects (Smoking Deaths Worldwide.)

• Natural disasters: Tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, lightening, infrastructure collapse -- take your pick. How many die? WikiAnswer says, "heaps".

• Suicide: 30,000 to 80,000 -- stats vary, and ascertaining this particular form of death is difficult.

You get the idea.