YES, new cars are safer.

[Defective]

You should run your generator regularly to keep it in good order anyways & that'd give you power to make coffee for the nice guys out getting your power back.

Or do like I do when the power goes out. I fire up my trusty camp stove & put my coleman coffee maker to use.

 

[KubotainNH]

I mentioned the generator for keeping the workers going with coffee. Camp stove works... So, what does a fire hydrant really do when hit by a car? I doubt it's like the movies.

 

[tallyho8]

I mentioned the generator for keeping the workers going with coffee. Camp stove works... So, what does a fire hydrant really do when hit by a car? I doubt it's like the movies.

MY fire hydrant just bends over about 45 degrees when a car hits it. The car is totaled. Then the water department comes out and pulls it back about 35 degrees so it still leans about 10 degrees. They say if they pull it any straighter it will break. I wonder how they know?

 

[pennwalk]

Tally,

I was telling my wife about this thread and she said " You know people around here die all the time when they hit poles". I realized she was right. I wonder what the difference is.

Chris

 

[tallyho8]

I think one thing that helps save their lives is that the poles are on the other side of the ditch and the ditch slows down the cars before they hit the poles. However, they do still hit the poles hard enough to break them in half.

Only 2 of the 5 vehicles that wrecked this year had airbags that deployed but I think everyone had seatbelts on and with a 35 mph speed limit, most the cars are only doing about 45 or 50.

What I worry about most is that some day someone will get killed in my front yard and then someone will put up a memorial to them in my front yard. This is a very common thing nowadays that people around here put up memorials where someone is killed instead of on their grave. Now there are bunches of crosses, balloons, giant posters, ribbons, beads, artificial flowers, toys, etc along the roads and it is illegal to move them. The biggest memorial around is a couple of miles away where 2 teenagers who had been in trouble all their lives had stolen a car and were being chased by the police and they crashed and got killed. By the looks of the memorial on the road you would think a saint had died.

 

[Defective]

Anybody puts a memorial on my yard because some idiot took himself out of the gene pool gets a chance to try & get me jailed.

On the other hand, I'd have no objection if the victim were actually a victim. I would make an effort to convince people to keep it tasteful tho.

 

[pennwalk]

There is a roadside memorial not too far from me. It is quite elaborate, candles and pictures, flowers with a little fence around it. We knew the family. Very sad. After a while I hope they will be able to do something to remember their children's lives instead if the place where they crashed.

Chris

 

[excelagator]

This sounds like your poles Tally.

This is the short and sweet version. A local guy that was pulled over for drunk driving by authorities. He was let go and returned home, why I do not know! Once the violator got home and told the story to his friends they returned to the site. Stupidly they got there and took out the power substation in the process. Ended up taking power out for half the county. Sadly no bad genes removed from this incident.

Airbags need usually three things to deploy. 1 or 2 crush sensor(s) to send a signal, inertia signal, and 35 MPH.

 

[barneyrb]

It's been a month since a car knocked down the 4th pole in front of my house this year and this has been a record. Last night a car hit and broke the 5th pole in front of my house this year. This time it took out my lights and cable internet and I finally got back on line to report it.

This was the first driver this year who didn't appear to be drunk. He says he swerved when he saw another car cross the centerline.

It destroyed the pole and totaled his car and deployed his airbag but again, the driver walked away with no injuries. I can remember a lot of people getting killed in the 1950s and 1960s when hitting poles so I am quite sure that new cars are much safer. I can also remember many cars getting totaled and not knocking the pole down so I am also sure that the new poles are much weaker.

It is interesting that when they put a new pole down here now, after they place the pole in the ground, they pour foam in the hole to support the pole instead of backfilling the hole.

And I couldn't even make any coffee to offer the responders because I had no power. The power crew is getting very quick at changing these poles out along with all the high power lines, phone and cable lines, doing it all in about 4 hours but the cable company didn't show up till 12 hours later to repair the cable.

Tally,
They say most accidents happen within a mile from home...believe I'd be moving. As Ron White says "Ya can't fix stupid"

 

[tallyho8]

Last night (Saturday) I heard a noise and went out to look and a car was in the ditch in front of my home. This one missed the pole for a change. I just went back to bed.......