Quote:
Originally Posted by t walgamuth
This afternoon and evening we attended a wedding of my #2 daughter's high school chums. I am a sucker for a wedding. I always think of the youngsters and the life ahead of them and spend perhaps more time than I should getting teary eyed.
Tonight at the dinner we sat at a table with a lady and her daughter who had another daughter the same age as my #2 who was killed in a car accident along with the ladies husband. The lady was driving the car and fell asleep. The daughter who was killed was a wonderful influence on my daughter their junior year when my daughter suffered from serious depression. The fatal accident occurred the next summer.
At the next table was a family who had a daughter who was in a serious accident and was comatose for a good while and is now in a wheelchair. I knew of the girl but did not know that her father is a man who worked on the plumbing in my building ten years ago. He is a really great guy.
So here I am already a big teary eyed guy and I am sitting next to the widow and at the next table to the fellow who's daughter was so damaged and is s sitting there in her wheel chair. Her father is just a wonderful, positive man.
So it was one of those moments which you have occasionally where you realize your own problems are so very petty.
Count your blessings my friends!  |
Good thread Tom !!!
I have gone to sleep badly at the wheel twice in my younger years.
The first time I rolled the car onto its side after waking & swerving to miss a tree (broke a tail light on the tree), the second time I woke up in the car after it stopped on a country road in the middle of the road. I think the car had slowed & I had been asleep for about 20 minutes.
It was only luck that saved me both times !!
Having lost 2 cousins in road accidents, it is easy to now be much more aware of how fragile we are.
Your participation in car racing highlights your sense of realizing that if one wishes to drive on the limit, it is best done on a track & not on pubic roads.
Any one wishing to see what can happen from falling asleep at the wheel may wish to watch some of these. They are used here for education of young drivers.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=australian+transport+accident+commission&aq=5m&oq=transport+acc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_4jr9CStUY
There is a clip of a guy in a VW combi falling asleep & hitting a sand truck, I couldnt find it though. worth a look.
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I no longer question authority, I annoy authority. More effect, less effort....
1967 230-6 auto parts car. rust bucket.
1980 300D now parts car 800k miles
1984 300D 500k miles
1987 250td 160k miles English import
2001 jeep turbo diesel 130k miles
1998 jeep tdi ~ followed me home. Needs a turbo.
1968 Ford F750 truck. 6-354 diesel conversion.
Other toys ~J.D.,Cat & GM ~ mainly earth moving