Re: No AAA member, what if I get a flat tire?

Geoff Miller wrote in alt.autos

> 
> 
> Gordon Burditt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> 
> [...]
> 
>> A ripped-to-shreds tire would make it harder to push, but
>> I could probably still do it.  
> 
> Bev was talking about a *disabled* car.  A car that has a flat
> tire can still be driven off the road.  There'd be no reason to
> push it.

And that leads to one thing that really gets me. Someone has a flat
tire on an area of freeway with no shoulder, but only a mile or so to
a shoulder. They stop in the freeway and change their tire, instead of
driving on to the shoulder. Just to save the cost of a new tire. 

> 
> 
>> On the couple of times in 30 years when I've had a tire blow
>> out, and the one time I was stupid and thought I could make
>> it to the next gas station but couldn't, and the time the
>> engine just lost power and quit on me, all on the freeway,
>> I managed to get to the side of the road and out of traffic
>> with the momentum I had left, without hitting anything or
>> even coming close to hitting or being hit.  All of these
>> happened in at least moderate traffic.
> 
> Assuming that one's car is in the right lane when it conks out,
> I think all this fear of being hit is overblown.  A car doesn't
> suddenly become invisible just because the engine stops or a 
> tire blows out, right?  Assuming you're not sitting in a blind
> curve or below the crest of a hill, people are going to see you
> and brake or steer around you just like they'd see and brake or
> steer around a slower vehicle (as opposed to a _stopped_ vehicle)
> in their lane.

One would think so, but last year in Washington, during broad daylight,
an SUV ran over a car that was stopped for traffic, and killed several 
people inside. A couple of months earlier, a similar accident happened 
when traffic was stopped on an offramp. And that offramp always stops
up. I was nearly rearended when in a traffic jam on a freeway just 2
years ago. The other car swerved to the shoulder and slid even with me.
And I mean slid, all four tires locked up.
People do not always pay attention to the cars ahead of them, and when 
one stops, the car behind may not see them until it is too late. Stopping
on the freeway for any reason is very very dangerous.


-- 
Dick #1349
"Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find it."
Andre Gide, French author and critic (1869-1951).
Home Page: dickcr.iwarp.com
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