Let's all stay alive

By The Malibu Times · Thu Jan 25 2001

In the years I was practicing law, every once in a while I'd get a case where someone was badly injured doing something that was, by any definition, incredibly stupid. They stuck their hand under a drop hammer, or around a saw blade, or didn't bother to put on their goggles, and when tragedy struck, it was typically devastating.

What has happened over time, is that from doing the same thing 10,000 times, even the most dangerous activities begin to seem ordinary and you forget how quickly the ordinary can turn into the extraordinary.

The fact is, most accidents are extraordinary events, occurring relatively infrequently, but still, they occur.

I can virtually guarantee you that sometime in the future, I don't know when or where, you most probably will have a serious car accident. If you drive on Pacific Coast Highway everyday, you have a reasonable chance that's where it will occur because Pacific Coast Highway is a traffic engineer's nightmare.

Within the last two weeks we have had two fatalities on the highway; one, allegedly occurring when a vehicle spun out of control, crossed over into oncoming traffic and was struck broadside on the driver's door, killing the driver. The other happened Friday when a pedestrian was hit and killed, allegedly while walking on the side of the road. Both matters are under investigation.

The picture of last week's accident is not easy to look at. We thought long and hard before deciding to run it. We decided to run it because death is blunt and stark and it's important not to sugar coat that fact.

If we don't slow down and drive more carefully, the toll will continue to rise. I must confess, I'm no better than most drivers when it comes to slowing down. I'm always in a hurry and I'm always running late. Also, like many of you, I am an honors graduate of several distinguished traffic schools over the years.

And it isn't as if I don't know better. Over the years I've heard, and put onto the witness stand, many an accident reconstruction expert. I know how dangerous PCH really is, and yet, like the guy with the drop hammer, I keep forgetting it.

So let me give you some basic observations as to what I mean when I say this is a very dangerous road.

Pacific Coast Highway is our main street and it is also a freeway -- a freeway where traffic is intersected directly from private driveways. No sane traffic engineer would ever voluntarily design a highway that way.

To enter this highway, you generally have to accelerate because of the heavy traffic, which means first, you look ahead to see that it's clear, and then back over your left shoulder toward oncoming traffic. Then you gun it, and God help anybody who suddenly pops out in front of you. There are certain intersections where this is particularly bad like PCH at Topanga Canyon, and at Las Flores Canyon Road, at Rambla Vista, at Serra Road, at John Tyler Drive, at Zumirez Drive, at Kanan Dume Road, and on and on. I'm sure you all have your favorites. Trying to make a right turn on a red signal is generally an adventure.

The geometry of the highway is bad. It is relatively narrow, it twists and turns, and the surface is uneven from both traffic volume and land movement. In early mornings and late evenings you can generally count on having the sun in your eyes for part of the time. Because of the geometry of the highway, the sighting distances are short, which means there isn't a lot of time to decide on depth perception.

To give you an idea, generally speaking, a car moving at 50 miles per hour moves about 75 feet per second. It takes a typical person about three-quarters of a second to react, which means at 50 miles per hour, a car moves about 56 feet in the time it takes a person to react. With decent brakes, it used to be calculated that a car could slow down at about 15 miles per hour for each second the brakes are applied; at 50 miles per hour, it will take about three-plus seconds and 125 feet to come to a complete stop. But perception time also has to be added, which is the time it takes to see and figure out that danger exists before hitting the brakes. And perception time is the big variable. It's harder to see at night than in daytime, it's harder to make an accurate judgment if an oncoming vehicle is small, like a bike or a motorcycle. And, most of all, alcohol just plain kills perception time.

So here are some simple survival rules:

• At some intersections, it's better not to make a right turn on a red signal.

• Never turn left in front of a motorcycle, because no matter what you think, it's probably closer and moving faster than it appears to you.

• It's harder to judge the speed and distance of anything coming toward you, so if you're in the left lane turning left, and the other guy is in the left lane, your speed and distance perception is probably off.

• Watch it, especially on weekends, when all the bike clubs hit the highway because they often have their feet strapped onto the pedals and are trying not to stop.

• Stay away from driving little teeny cars because your survival rate goes down significantly, particularly now with SUVs getting bigger.

• Wear your seat belt. The research is clear that seat belts increase survival rates significantly.

• And then, even if you follow all the safety rules, it's not going to work if you have a cell phone in one hand and a coffee mug in the other.

So this week, let's all work at staying alive.