Anyone Else Scared Of Being In An Accident In The Elise?
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* Always have your mirrors clean and well adjusted.
* Use a lightinsight to help with the visibility of up-close signs and traffic lights. It works great!
* Learn the car's blind spots.
* Park away from others, especially those in SUVs as they cannot see you when they back up.
* Install a louder horn. The horn buttons are easily reached with your thumbs without moving your hands.
* Don't select a wall flower color
* Stay alert.
* The Elise does not fare well in several MPH bumps but is quite strong in actual accidents. It does well in he 30 MPH into a brick wall test, for example.
* Don't race the yahoos who will keep challenging you on the road.
* The Elise has great brakes, way better than about anything else. If I have a tailgater behind me, I prefer to let him by so that he won't hit me if I need to make a sudden stop and he cannot stop as well as me.
* Try to place yourself in traffic such that you have some options - ever notice how Police cars do that and allow room in front of them in traffic?
* A louder exhaust helps other sense your whereabouts.
* Don't reach for stuff in the car as you drive, especially stuff in the cargo net.
* Use a lightinsight to help with the visibility of up-close signs and traffic lights. It works great!
* Learn the car's blind spots.
* Park away from others, especially those in SUVs as they cannot see you when they back up.
* Install a louder horn. The horn buttons are easily reached with your thumbs without moving your hands.
* Don't select a wall flower color
* Stay alert.
* The Elise does not fare well in several MPH bumps but is quite strong in actual accidents. It does well in he 30 MPH into a brick wall test, for example.
* Don't race the yahoos who will keep challenging you on the road.
* The Elise has great brakes, way better than about anything else. If I have a tailgater behind me, I prefer to let him by so that he won't hit me if I need to make a sudden stop and he cannot stop as well as me.
* Try to place yourself in traffic such that you have some options - ever notice how Police cars do that and allow room in front of them in traffic?
* A louder exhaust helps other sense your whereabouts.
* Don't reach for stuff in the car as you drive, especially stuff in the cargo net.
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I don't get it. So many people seem to view car accidents as inevitibilities. Fact is, the odds of being in an accident are slim, and if you are in an accident, odds are you'd be just fine in most accidents in the Elise. Yeah, there are 'safer' cars out there, but what's the point in living if you don't feel alive?
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And there is nothing like a near accident to make you feel really alive.
Stan, I would also add:
* Learn car control techniques.
* Understand how midengined cars behave on corners. Be careful of panic braking or lifting in the corners. Watch out for things that will change the grip on the rear tires. A puddle. Leaves or gravel. A dip in the pavement.
* Keep your tires properly inflated and in good shape.
* Remove distractions in the cabin. Things can happen very quickly.
* Stay alert. If you are tired, pull over and rest.
* Stay away from the passenger side of cars, specially any higher ones. They can not see you below the door line. For the same reason, be careful about passing on the right if you have to do this. Give yourself an out.
* Watch the road for debris and potholes. The bad news is hitting a piece of debris on the road can be very bad in the Elise. The good news is that you are nimble enough to miss it.
Stan, I would also add:
* Learn car control techniques.
* Understand how midengined cars behave on corners. Be careful of panic braking or lifting in the corners. Watch out for things that will change the grip on the rear tires. A puddle. Leaves or gravel. A dip in the pavement.
* Keep your tires properly inflated and in good shape.
* Remove distractions in the cabin. Things can happen very quickly.
* Stay alert. If you are tired, pull over and rest.
* Stay away from the passenger side of cars, specially any higher ones. They can not see you below the door line. For the same reason, be careful about passing on the right if you have to do this. Give yourself an out.
* Watch the road for debris and potholes. The bad news is hitting a piece of debris on the road can be very bad in the Elise. The good news is that you are nimble enough to miss it.
thanks,
all great advice. I really started this thread to show you an accident caught live on camera (guess I can't download a "wmv" file) The video revealed that basically despite our best efforts, we could be killed at any time by a careless driver. Really nothing we don't all know.....and fortunately rare, but with pathetic enforcement of driving under the influence, roads are dangerous and we are more vunerable in the Elise.
all great advice. I really started this thread to show you an accident caught live on camera (guess I can't download a "wmv" file) The video revealed that basically despite our best efforts, we could be killed at any time by a careless driver. Really nothing we don't all know.....and fortunately rare, but with pathetic enforcement of driving under the influence, roads are dangerous and we are more vunerable in the Elise.
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I try to keep on motorcycle fatalities. Gist of it is, if you're run over by a car while riding a motorcycle, the hitter typically gets a "get out of jail free" card. Look at the Dakota governor, what'd he do, 90 days for running a stop sign (which he'd been ticketed for before at that intersection and speeding and killing a rider.
God bless the US legal system.
Chris
God bless the US legal system.
Chris
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Actually, unfortunately the odds are pretty bad. I seem to remember that about 1 in 4 people will be involved in a wreck each year. Most are minor.MattG said:
For every one like me - 3 wrecks in 35+ years of driving (all three were people coming out of "blind" situations and nailing me - they were sited in two, and the cops refused to come to the wreck for the third because it was snowing) - there are several that are in two or three wrecks a year. For some people, it not only seems to be inevitable, it unfortunately tends to be.
Notice that I use the term wreck instead of accident? Most people view wrecks as an accident that couldn't be avoided, and therefore something that is inevitable - I've never yet seen a wreck where someone didn't do something wrong.
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Randy touched on this, but I would strongly recommend running an autoX or two to learn how to drive your car in extreme circumstances. It really does help you become aware of your car's capabilities, which I found out the hard way in August avoiding an Pennsylvania driver who pulled out in front of me and then stopped.
Another repeat-leave space ahead of you and allow yourself to dart off to the right shoulder in a pinch. Saved my Elise once, so far, doing that with a Pennsylvania no-brainer not paying attention...
Another repeat-leave space ahead of you and allow yourself to dart off to the right shoulder in a pinch. Saved my Elise once, so far, doing that with a Pennsylvania no-brainer not paying attention...
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I'll add to the stay allert part. By Alert, I mean that you learn to read cars on the road, figure out the ones that are dangerous and the ones that are unpredictable. This does work. With enough experience you can always have "contingencies" for avoiding an accident. Of course you cannot cover everything but this will drastically reduce your chances of a collision. When there is someone tail gating or over agressive, just let them go, I'd rather have them in front of me than behind, where I can control the distance.
BTW if you read your Lotus history and see quotes from Colin Chapman about safety he had some interesting things to say on the subject.
He was a big believer in *active* as opposed to *passive* safety. As in trying to avoid the accident in the first place. He spoke to safety experts, Government types and so forth.
He was also a pioneer in "ablative" suspension bits. This means that if you hit on a corner of the car and the suspension breaks, it's designed to sacrifice itself in such a way that energy is usefully absorbed but not transmitted into the frame and cockpit areas. That way the frame itself and occupants tend to survive.
Our cars have this feature.
If an accident is unavoidable but you can still choose where / what to hit, try to make contact with the front of the car as that has the most energy absorbing capability and will have the highest chance of allowing the airbags to work their best while hopefully preserving the frame. In many cases a front clam and related bits can be reloaded onto the Elise after surprisingly solid impacts.
He was a big believer in *active* as opposed to *passive* safety. As in trying to avoid the accident in the first place. He spoke to safety experts, Government types and so forth.
He was also a pioneer in "ablative" suspension bits. This means that if you hit on a corner of the car and the suspension breaks, it's designed to sacrifice itself in such a way that energy is usefully absorbed but not transmitted into the frame and cockpit areas. That way the frame itself and occupants tend to survive.
Our cars have this feature.
If an accident is unavoidable but you can still choose where / what to hit, try to make contact with the front of the car as that has the most energy absorbing capability and will have the highest chance of allowing the airbags to work their best while hopefully preserving the frame. In many cases a front clam and related bits can be reloaded onto the Elise after surprisingly solid impacts.
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If you believe in a self fulfilling prophesy, then I think you would fare as well as any other passenger car as long as the contretemps was with another passenger car.
I don't think you want this mind set when it comes to domestic full size SUV and trucks as their bumpers are above the side impact beams of most passenger cars, weigh over 5000Lb and will still have enough momentum to complete a secondary impact or ramp up a car.
You need to be awake to drive a short low vehicle.
Colour makes little difference, maybe a split second sooner to be recognised in the subconscious than storm titanium and graphite when the sky is leaden or rainy.
Dont drive with an "it's inevitable mindset" or you'll steer yourself right into an accident.
Pay attention to your instincts. If you're driving in a certain pattern of traffic that makes you think "i don't feel right about this" then get clear. I've avoided accidents by heeding the sudden discomfort with the traffic i have been running with.
m.
I don't think you want this mind set when it comes to domestic full size SUV and trucks as their bumpers are above the side impact beams of most passenger cars, weigh over 5000Lb and will still have enough momentum to complete a secondary impact or ramp up a car.
You need to be awake to drive a short low vehicle.
Colour makes little difference, maybe a split second sooner to be recognised in the subconscious than storm titanium and graphite when the sky is leaden or rainy.
Dont drive with an "it's inevitable mindset" or you'll steer yourself right into an accident.
Pay attention to your instincts. If you're driving in a certain pattern of traffic that makes you think "i don't feel right about this" then get clear. I've avoided accidents by heeding the sudden discomfort with the traffic i have been running with.
m.
I'm only 27 but we had Lawn Darts when we were kids (they probably belonged to my older brothers/sisters). I remember being a little kid and putting the ring in the back yard and then throwing the darts as hard as we could to get them over the house and see who could get closest to the ring. I wonder what my neighbor's thought...Surferjer said:
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I don't consider accidents as evitable just probable. Even with presence of mind and training, accidents happen (this is why motorcyclists wear safety gear). In the event all else fails, there's two things I'm hoping the Elise will be able to do:
1) The front and rear clam shell will be able to absorb enough kinetic energy to prevent serious injury. I'd expect the Elise to be totaled though.
2) I'm hoping the tub-like aluminum chassis will prevent any intrusions (ie: the front wheel) into the driver-passenger compartment.
The two things I'd worry about would be:
a) Being rear ending by a larger truck and having them roll over me;
b) Rear ending a larger vehicle and wedging myself under them and being crushed by their wheel, or rear ending a larger truck and decapitating myself.
But no, I'm not scared.
1) The front and rear clam shell will be able to absorb enough kinetic energy to prevent serious injury. I'd expect the Elise to be totaled though.
2) I'm hoping the tub-like aluminum chassis will prevent any intrusions (ie: the front wheel) into the driver-passenger compartment.
The two things I'd worry about would be:
a) Being rear ending by a larger truck and having them roll over me;
b) Rear ending a larger vehicle and wedging myself under them and being crushed by their wheel, or rear ending a larger truck and decapitating myself.
But no, I'm not scared.
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