Soldiers Survive War, Then Die On The Roads

[Steel City Slim]

AMERICAN soldiers who survive Iraq and Afghanistan are dying in record numbers on roads in the United States, driving at speed and ignoring standard safety precautions because of a newfound sense of invincibility. The latest figures show a 41 per cent increase in the deaths of servicemen in accidents involving cars and motorcycles, compared with the average for the past three years.

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/?Page=Article&ID=3193

[Dora]

1. Sense of invincibility?

Or latent death wish?

Survivor's guilt can cause a person to make stupid choices.

[Throckmorton]

2. Sadly I know a young man that did this

Chad Braley, just home for Iraq and died on his motorcycle three weeks later.

The whole town mourned, for him. His father, Ed, was the person that only 6 weeks earlier had handled the luncheon at the church after April's funeral.

Now a year later, he looks 100 years old, instead of 54.

[whistle]

3. How much is due to alcohol related causes....

....and is that higher than the general population? Maybe it's a new form of post traumatic stress brought on by the isolation and horror of those wars.

It is alarming and perhaps for their own safety, returning veterans should be re-tested for their motor vehicle licenses.

[Steel City Slim]

5. You Make A Good Point About The Alcohol

I know I drank a lot more after I got back from Vietnam, drunk every night. As for re-testing, maybe re-educating would be more effective.

[malmapus]

16. Alchohol, the soldiers buddy

Living the Airborne lifestyle at Ft. Bragg would see insane drinking, let alone after coming back from deployments. Use to take pride that we would make frat parties look lame in terms of the drinking happening. But that was the lifestyle, live every day like it was your last, espicially with hearing about buddies dying from jumps, training exercises and what not. But yeah we would have our fair share of driving accidents on base and off which accounted for even more deaths.

[MindPilot]

6. You're going to tell returning vets

they can't drive? Why don't you just go to the airport and spit on 'em?

[Steel City Slim]

8. I Don't Think Anybody Is Suggesting....

....that they not be permitted to drive, just that they be reminded about safety. For themselves and for others.

[whistle]

11. Of course, that's what I meant, most of these people haven't....

...been behind the wheel of a vehicle in heavy traffic for over a year. Those who have been driving in Iraq, seem to drive at high speeds hoping to miss roadside bombs. There is a lot of de-conditioning that needs to be done before these returning vets go jumping behind the wheel of a car back home. Look what a stressful 8 hours at the office or work-site can do the typical driver here. Besides, I don't spit.

[MindPilot]

4. Before we go into major psychobabble about this...

How about just don't give a shit anymore? And there is the adrenaline factor; when you've spent time jumping out of airplanes, kicking around in a tank, or piloting a ship the size of a small city, driving 80 on the freeway just ain't much of a threat.

I was thinking about this very thing on the way home last night. Rolling down the freeway flirting with three digits, with criminals taking us to war based on lies and corporate criminals taking all the wealth and destroying the environmnet, I just can't see how my "driving too fast" is an issue. Bottom line: I don't fucking care.

[Steel City Slim]

7. Do You Think It Could Be An Issue....

....for the people in the car you crash into?

[LisaL]

9. Exactly. Sadly, people driving dangerously can

easily die but also kill someone else.

[MindPilot]

12. who said anything about driving dangerously?

I said driving fast.

If you believe that speed equals danger then you have fallen for the corporate / law enforcement lies. Speed laws are about revenue generation, not safety.

[LisaL]

13. LOL. Don't you think speed has something to do with

who will survive the crash, and who will not?

[MindPilot]

15. of course it does

but you're assuming there will be a crash.

[LisaL]

17. If there is no crush, why is that the soldiers dying in recodr numbers?

[LisaL]

10. You might not care, but there are other people driving

on the same freeway that do.
Killing oneself is one thing. Killing others is not quite the same thing.
:eyes:

[MindPilot]

14. Then they can stay in the right lane and putz along at 50

or whatever speed they think is "safe". I'm not out to kill or injure anyone. I've just had it with all the stupid laws that infer I'm incapable of exercising good judgment from the cockpit and cannot control my own vehicle and operate within its limitations.

[kiki]

18. Your argument is pretty spurious...

...and it could be said that, by your seeing your petrol-filled, one-ton, 100mph killing machine as some sort of toy for your personal amusement, YOU'VE fallen a little too hard for what the car companies and their advertisers have to say.

Speeding as a way of being progressive? Give me a break.

[MindPilot]

19. Sorry , I have kind of hijacked the original point of this thread

but yes speeding is being progressive since speed laws for the most--like red light cameras, seat belt laws and DUI checkpoints--have little and nothing to do with safety and everything to do with revenue generation and giving law enforcement more opportunities to infringe on individuals' rights.

And no that car is not a toy for my personal amusement, it's a way to get from one place to another because there is no alternative; and the only thing I do slowly is type.

[kiki]

20. Do you have any evidence for this?

It would seem pretty self-evident that faster driving leads to increased and more often fatal accidents.

[MindPilot]

21. it would seem that way, but the research shows it;s not true

in fact there is very little correlation between increased speed and increased accidents. In fact there are several cases where lowering speed limits has actually increased fatalities.

Please read the articles at

http://www.motorists.org/issues/speed/speed_limit_research.html

[Steel City Slim]

22. I Don't Know Anything About The NMA

In fact this is the first time I've ever heard of them, though I do know you can find a seemingly independent organization to support just about any point of view. The fact that in praising congress for the repeal of the 55 mph speed limit they point out that it was a "republican congress" raises a red flag for me.

[kiki]

24. I also don't know anything about them...

...and they may have a point - but they are a self-professed motorists' advocacy group, not a public health group. Indeed, from looking at their site, their agenda seems to be that motorists should always be allowed to drive as fast as they want and should be generally free from any legal restrictions in the way they use their cars. So, without meaning to dismiss them entirely, they don't seem like the most objective group.

[Steel City Slim]

23. I Do Not Think You've Hijacked The Original Point At All

I think your comments have amplified the concerns raised in the article to an exceptional degree.