The police in Germany chase and catch a driver in a stolen Audi A5 on the Autobahn. He drove at over 240 km/h (150mph) but lost control, left the road then hurtled back on, hitting another vehicle in the process.
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The German courts sentenced him to 3 years and 9 months in prison.
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*****This type of event, even though rare, is just one excellent reason for repeatedly checking your mirrors every time you drive and on any type of road, to help you minimize risk from behind. Every 4-8 seconds is the usual guideline.*****
Excerpt: [A chief of police in Wisconsin] has serious concerns with proposals in Congress that would allow heavier and longer rigs on highways because these proposals would dramatically increase the danger faced by everyday drivers.
Semi-tractor-trailer. Copyright image.
The proposal calls for increasing trucks weights nationwide from 80,000 to 91,000 pounds, and another calls for increasing the length of double-trailer trucks by 10 feet, to 91 feet in length.
…Bigger trucks may mean increased profit margins for the handful of companies that would benefit, they also pose substantial safety risks to motorists…
Already more than 4,000 people are killed each year in the USA in crashes involving large trucks. One factor in this bad scenario is the long hours that drivers are allowed to work, behind the wheel, each week — far more than in other countries that have much lower road-death rates than does America. Making trucks larger and therefor even harder to stop should be seen as an extra factor that is likely to increase the number of deaths even further.
