Nothing stirs the pot around here more than article of which car is the best at whatever.
Any post pertaining to anything being the “best” brings the arm chair experts of the woodwork. Whether it be the nuances of the luxury ride or that 1/10th of a second faster 0-60 time, to a 1/20th of a G in a corner, everyone loves to define the reason their choice is the best. The subject also wanders into driving style and the proper technique or lack of by some of our counterparts on the road.
This last point comes to mind after I ran across a forum post that puts a lot of things in perspective. While we all quibble about the intangibles, the 1/100th of something that made your choice standout, one of the thing is rarely covered by our resident experts is survivability.
No matter how expert a driver you might be, you simply can’t control the other guy out there. I have seen my fair share of crackups over the years and this recent one of the Labor Day weekend reminded me of just how important safety is.
I’ll set the stage for you real quick by stating this incident happened on a two lane black top at legal speeds. The 2008 RS4 was carrying a driver, his, wife and 5 year old child in booster seat in the back cruising at a rather uneventful 65 mph. In just an instant a car traveling in the opposite lane suddenly veered over the dividing line setting the stage for a head on collision.
Luckily, a last ditch evasive move across the median resulted in a glancing blow that sent the RS4 off the road where it subsequently rolled 3 times before coming to a rest.
Considering the fact the media in general wants you to believe just how unsafe the average car is, this sounds like the recipe for disaster. However in the end the Audi did exactly what it was designed to do and it protected the occupants. Amazingly both of the adults walked away from the scene with a few bumps and bruises, however the 5 year old sitting in a booster seat took a bit wilder ride and suffered a broken arm.
I guess we should all gather from this is that it is easy to get caught up in the obvious aspects of the automotive scene. But sometimes it is the things you DON’T see that may be the most important of all. After all in an instant it can all change.
BTW the cause of the accident to begin with? A distracted driver rolling up a window. The 23 year old was treated at the scene and was thankful her actions did cause any deaths.
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