1300 hp mercury comet brake failure crash
Setting aside the fact that someone was or could have been seriously injured. And in no way do I defend the choices the driver made.
To me it's interesting how it seems to be human nature (myself included) that when an accident happens we go through each moment looking for a way to figure out how it could have been preventented. Or maybe even " how this could never happen to me". Also interesting is how often times it all is boiled down to the person responsible as just being "stupid". That's convenient because nobody wants to believe that some version of this could ever happen to them. And we all like to think that we are all smarter than average. lol.
Another thing I find interesting is how once "stupidity" is deemed the cause of the accident for some it triggers alot of anger. Some people show alot of disdain for those who they consider "stupid". What is the source of all that anger? Is it because they see themselves as a possible victim in the accident? Maybe. If it is possible to see yourself as a victim is it possible to see yourself as the person responsible? Probably not if you believe the person responsible is " stupid" because none of us are stupid. Right?
It's all the frustration over knowing this was 100% preventable, didn't have to happen, shouldn't have happened. Standard practice for most people would prevent this kind of thing. Many of us like to think that cars built at 'this level' come with some increased ability from the crew building them, which makes the frustration worse IMO.
There's no defending what these yahoos did. The car was unsafe to operate anywhere. A car with a sticking accelerator is dangerous in every instance. I would be nervous with it even running in the garage until it was sorted. Also, how goddamn hard is it to figure out what makes it stick? I've had sticky carbs/throttle bodies and never once did I rationalize "It'll work itself out on the road" - no, I figured it out and fixed it. None took more than a few minutes to address. A car like this, maybe it would have taken more time but it doesn't matter. It shouldn't have gone anywhere.
There's such a thing as calculated risk. Are there some folks who would tool around with that car, knowing the throttle sticks a bit? Probably. Would it turn out horrendous if someone were to tool it around in some back-alley industrial block with no street traffic? Probably not. Are there instances where operating a vehicle in this condition would be no big deal, even if the car still wound up wiped out? Of course. This situation was very poorly calculated, it's not equivalent, it's not forgivable.
These rocket surgeons took an unready, dangerous vehicle into busy city traffic with no plan in place for when something goes horribly wrong. Maybe it's my exposure to the aerospace world, but there's no way in hell I take a fresh car on the road, with known issues (and never a sticky throttle), without a plan to overcome the potential failure. Keying the car off, hitting a kill switch, knowing how to find neutral - all of these should have been identified and practiced a couple times. Same way people practice egress from a racecar. This isn't a monday-morning quarterback situation, this is calling out a few morons for negligent behavior that is inexcusable.
This is a couple of people who are the equivalent of someone who runs over pedestrians during a street-race. Zero difference.
