Some people don’t know how to adjust their mirrors properly, position themselves properly, and most importantly they don’t know how to effectively check their blind spot.

Some people dart right into the lane when they are supposed to change lanes nice a gradually.

You also said “Everyone here says that speed does not cause any accidents which is false but also when speed is not the cause it makes the accident a lot worse.” Randy speed alone does not kill but speeding too fast for conditions can contribute to the cause of an accident. Speed does make things worse if an accident occurs.

As far as that accident we were talking about it more than likely was caused by someone that did not check their blind spot but the speed that they were traveling at caused the car that got bumped into to roll over 8 times. Traveling slower that would not have happened. Everyone here says that speed does not cause any accidents which is false but also when speed is not the cause it makes the accident a lot worse.

I also found a crazy video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4j3w1QfV35I

Watch the whole video. The crazy part happens after the officer walks back to his car.

Back in the 90s, because of my son’s karate tournaments, I used to drive my 1985 Pontiac Parisenne up to 40,000 miles per year. Over the life of this car (currently at about 270,000 miles) I would get about 1 speeding ticket every 25,000 miles (about the circumference of the earth). That may not seem like much but over time it adds up.

I used to think that a good compromise would be to usually set the cruise control at about 5 over and generally stay in the right lane. The problem with that is the right lane would occasionally contain someone going at or below the speed limit. When I would look in my rearview mirror, as often as not would be another car going ever so slightly faster than I. My choice then would be to turn up the wick or brake.

If the interstate were more like the autobahn we would have a different set of problems although the autobahn has a slightly better safety record and that has to count for something considering that the speeds are much higher. Just as many or perhaps more citations are written on the autobahn but not very much for speeding. As long as you maintain proper lane discipline, don’t follow too closely and don’t give impolite gestures you can get by with driving.

In the United States, by contrast, speed limits are enforced according to location and time. My last speeding ticket, my 10th and last on the Parisenne, which was in the summer of 2001, was a bogus ticket. Oddly enough it was that one that caused me to become what the National Motorists Association calls an extreme law abider. I became this type of driver because I didn’t want any more speeding tickets. It wasn’t a safety issue. In fact I now consider myself a more dangerous driver than I was before.