I have a confession to make: I seem to have a knack for being the first one on the site of fatal car wrecks. Not because I'm a first responder or anything, I'm just an average joe and every one of the fatal accidents I've encountered in my 52 years of having a driver's license has simply been a case of driving down the road and bingo, there it was.
I also used to be into sports cars and racing them, so I'm just a bit more familiar with how cars handle and what makes 'em do what they do.
So I have to tell you about one particularly sad accident I spotted out the window, not of my car, but of my office. The road the plant was on had a low spot that tended to develop a 3 inch deep puddle about 30 yards long across the entire roadway every time it rained. It did one day, but the showers stopped, the sun came out, and everything dried nicely, except of course for the puddle, which always took a day or two more.
So I happen to glance out the window, and there, hanging in mid air, wrapped around a tree, was a car. I yelled at an assistant to call the authorities, and sprinted out the door to see if help was needed. The tree, a huge old sycamore, was sticking into the passenger side of the car holding it up. The bench seat had been shoved out the driver's door, and the driver, who wasn't wearing her seatbelt, had clearly slid across the seat and bounced off the tree. I could tell from the piece of bone sticking out of her left temple, but no sign of blood, that she had died instantly. She was the wife of one of the guys in the factory.
Oh, yeah, this was smack in the middle of a LOOOOOONG straight section of the road.
The car had clearly hit the puddle, the rear slid sideways, and she'd "spun out" into the tree. The car had brand new tires on the fronts, and baldies on the back. Obviously they had chosen to "take care of the front/steering wheels first." So when the car hit the puddle, the fronts had been just fine, but the rears had hydroplaned. She'd still be alive today if they'd only put those new treads on the BACK. The reason is simple, if your fronts slide, you will slide off into the weeds going in a more or less straight line. But if your rears slide instead, you are going for that ride through the weeds all kinds of sideways, and maybe for extra thrills, upside down to boot.
If you go frontwards, cars have all kinds of things built in to save your keister. But if you do it sideways, your butt is in a sling and you are on your own. Look at the door on your car. You got all of 4 inches of crumple-zone vs 8 feet of it in front of you.
I spent years of my foolish youth learning how to drive cars sideways. Staying healthy going forward is easy. Doing it sideways with failing equipment, especially with a driver who does not have the skills to deal is deadly.
If you are buying only two new tires, PUT THEM ON THE BACK!!!! Your family thanks you.
