6 ms·
This is a scalding hot take of an article that says nothing of substance, and commits many logical fallacies along the way. But, most people never read past th
by eckza 7y ago
This is a scalding hot take of an article that says nothing of substance, and commits many logical fallacies along the way.
But, most people never read past the headline, so I’m sure this will get passed off as gospel.
- yostrovs 7y agoYup, from the article: "Police did not identify speed as a primary factor in any of the 14 fatal crashes on 75 mph freeways in 2018, the highest number in five years."
- Jolter 7y agoHere's a hot take for you: Speed is a primary factor in any fatal crash. People don't die in low speed accidents. Of course, if the cars involved were not going fast, our stone-age brains would not make stupid decisions and cause crashes. We are neurologically well equipped to navigate speeds up to about a fast run, past that we are pushing our abilities. But that's not even the point. Traffic accidents happen everywhere, all the time, but those at high speeds are more likely to be fatal. The insurance companies have done the math, they don't make this stuff up.
- jaywalk 7y agoWhen you're on a highway, speeds fast enough to cause fatal crashes are a given. When speed is cited as a primary factor in an accident, it means speed that is too fast for the conditions.
- sdinsn 7y ago> Speed is a primary factor in any fatal crash. People don't die in low speed accidents Except that's not true. Most fatal accidents occur off of highways, despite the fact that highways have much higher speed limits.
- Jolter 7y agoMaybe we have different definitons of high speed. A pedestrian who gets hit by a car going 30 km/h will most likely survive, while one hit at 50 will most likely not. Likewise, a car crash at 70 km/h is very survivable by driver and passengers (in a modern car), while one at 120 is normally not, unless they are lucky.
- yostrovs 7y agoHigher speeds are safer where there are no barriers to hit, no pedestrians, no traffic lights, etc. The driving environment is relevant for deciding what is too fast.
- crankylinuxuser 7y agoIn other words, the media source BridgeMI, has some sort of underlying reasoning misleading the people who read it. Because at a simple read, "more people died cause the speed limit went up", even though speed was deemed not a factor. Would this qualify as fake news? Misleading news? Or something else?
- Jolter 7y agoIt's an ignorant police force quoted, mostly.
- stefan_ 7y agoRemember that power required to push air out of the way is quadratic with speed. The 10 mph increase here is a 30% increase in kinetic energy in any given crash.
- sdinsn 7y agoYou are right that kinetic energy scales quadratically, but it have nothing to do with "pushing air". The kinetic energy formula is the same in a vacuum.
- yostrovs 7y agoYou really mean that when the driver releases the break pedal, the car immediately slows down at a rate faster than had the car been moving slower initially. It's a safety feature it seems.