"I would expect that both of those factors apply to some extent"
That is exactly what I said and why I agree with the take the articles and the link I gave you to them at face value. It fits. Multi pronged approaches aoften work best.
I posted the link to the article that shows over 3000 deaths in one year at BAC between .08 an .10.
You are of the position that .08 doesnt cause enough death and harm to warrant .08 being the law. We respectfully disagree on that note. You will claim that .15 is where the trouble begins or that it is insiginificant. You have that right. I disagree.
Feel free to contact these folks for further information about a couple of the studies and I would say that they could prolly send youin the direction if you sought more information than they could provide to you'
"FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: In NHTSA: Ms. Marlene Markison, Office
of Injury Control Operations & Resources, NTI-200, telephone (202) 366-
2121, fax (202) 366-7394; Ms. Heidi Coleman, Office of Chief Counsel,
NCC-113, telephone (202) 366-1834, fax (202) 366-3820; or Ms. Tyler
Bolden, Office of Chief Counsel, NCC-113, telephone (202) 366-1834, fax
(202) 366-3820.
In FHWA: Mr. Randy Umbs, Office of Safety, HSA-1, telephone (202)
366-2177, fax (202) 366-3222; or Mr. Raymond W. Cuprill, Office of
Chief Counsel, HCC-30, telephone (202) 366-0791, fax (202) 366-7499."
I got them here : http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/14mar20010800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2003/03-2790.htm
A good bit more info there too you might find interesting.
(("If all of the intersections along a road have a 3.5 second yellow light, except for the one with a camera on it that has a 3.0 second yellow light, would you fault a motorist for not somehow knowing to expect the shorter yellow?))
Speedlimits on roads work with the timing of red yellow and green lights. IF you are driving the posted speed limits the length of the yellow light ins't an issue. However your attention is. If you blow a yellow light because you were counting in it being 3.5 I would say you are responsible for making an improper assumption.
(("Further, if a motorist notices a tailgater in the rear-view mirror when the light ahead turns yellow, is it better to (1) slam on the brakes to avoid running a red light if the yellow happens to be short (at the risk of being hit by the tailgater); (2) hit the brakes very briefly in an effort to get the tailgater's attention (in case he hasn't seen the yellow light yet) and then accellerate through the intersection (so as to make one's intentions clear to waiting cross-traffic motorists); (3) proceed as quickly as possible through the intersection, and hope the tailgater noticed the traffic signal."))
You are responsibile for your car and they are responsible for theirs. Here in Illinois if you rearend someone it is your fault. Period. That is to say, if I am tailgating you and you stop at a yellow/red light and I run into you, it is on me. Seems to me that this example tries to put responsibility for a person running a red light on a tailgater rather than on the person that runs it themselves.
Doesn't work that way. It is safest to stop at yellow to red lights.
# 2 (providing you are going the speedlimit) seems to offer that you would advocate disobeying the posted speed limit.
If speeding up allows you to pass thru on yellow and not red this would be appropriate ( but then this light stuff started about red lights didn't it), but if you have to speed up and pass thru on a red light you either had time to stop or you were speeding to begin with.
On the note about being passed IN the intersection by this person, I would ofer that you had another option. That being changing lanes.
Decisions made that reflect milliseconds really DO matter huh? I would wonder what the milliseconds in reaction time are affected at .08............
Had an officer been watching it take place I would offer he wouldn't be writing YOU a ticket, indeed he would be writing the person that blew by you a ticket.
You posted a number of links; I did not find any breakdown of fatalities by BAC more recent than 2002. Perhaps I was looking in the wrong place? Would you be so kind as to identify exactly where you got that particular figure from?
FYI, one source of my figures is here: http://www.ridl.us/pdf_stats/pdfs/2002/2002DriverErrorsAtBACandDrugs.pdf which is found off the link from post 105.
According to this, fatal accidents in which a driver committed one or more errors (including "unknown") in 2002, drivers with no alcohol were responsible for 46,632 crashes; those with amounts from 0.01 to 0.14 were responsible for 3,647, and those with amounts of 0.15+ were responsible for 4,409.
However your attention is. If you blow a yellow light because you were counting in it being 3.5 I would say you are responsible for making an improper assumption.
If I pass twenty traffic signals on a road and all the ones I stop at have 3.5-second yellows, is it unreasonable for me to expect that (absent something obvious cause like a municipal boundary or speed-limit change) the twenty-first will also have something resembling a 3.5 second yellow (note: the difference between 3 seconds and 3.5 seconds is huge)? In the absense of the photo revenue device, what would be the worst reasonably-expected consequence of such an assumption, even if it turns out to be mistaken?
You are responsibile for your car and they are responsible for theirs. Here in Illinois if you rearend someone it is your fault. Period. That is to say, if I am tailgating you and you stop at a yellow/red light and I run into you, it is on me. Seems to me that this example tries to put responsibility for a person running a red light on a tailgater rather than on the person that runs it themselves. Doesn't work that way. It is safest to stop at yellow to red lights.
Interesting philosoply. Interestingly, it's one I wrote about ages ago in my blog. Seems to me that you don't mind getting in an accident if you can blame it on someone else. My philosophy is that if one can prevent an accident--even if it wouldn't be your fault--you should do so.
On the note about being passed IN the intersection by this person, I would ofer that you had another option. That being changing lanes.
Let me draw you a picture:
... INTERSECTION ... || ___ || ___ | ___ || || ### || ### | ### || || CAR || ME# | CAR || || ### || ### | ### || || ___ || | ___ || || ### || | ### || || CAR || | CAR || || ### || | ### ||To my left was a left-turn lane, separated by a crossable median. In the lane to my right there were at least two cars. I noticed the maniac behind me in my lane approaching at breakneck speed.
In the second or so that I analyzed the situation (I noticed the guy before I'd come to a stop, then realized he wasn't going to), I determined that somebody's car was going to enter the intersection after the light turned red. I don't know if it would have been possible for the maniac to jump the centerline, but I certainly wasn't going to count on him doing so; as far as I could tell, his car was going to enter the intersection in my lane, my car was going to as well, and the only question was whether it should do so under its own power.
If I had remained stopped at the intersection as long as I could (i.e. until the moment of impact) my car would still have entered the intersection after the red light. Probably about 1-2 seconds after it did. Any injury caused to me or anyone the remains of my vehicle happened to hit would, legally speaking, be entirely the fault of the corpse behind me. But is it not better for all concerned that I decided to try to both warn other drivers that the intersection was not safe to enter, and lessen what I expected to still be a rather severe force of impact?
Decisions made that reflect milliseconds really DO matter huh? I would wonder what the milliseconds in reaction time are affected at .08...........
Probably comparable to the effects of being up 18+ hours without sleep. But people who do that aren't demonized.
Had an officer been watching it take place I would offer he wouldn't be writing YOU a ticket, indeed he would be writing the person that blew by you a ticket.
If he could catch him. I suppose that if he radioed for cops to be on the lookout ahead, they'd probably be able to figure out who the guy was even if the first cop didn't get the plate. On the other hand, it's not unknown for cops to go after the people they can catch.