What To Take Away From "Batman" Death

"JayZAyEighty thinks C4+3=C7" (jayzayeighty) 08/17/2015 at 12:34 • Filed to: None

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Would you walk onto the left lane of a busy highway? I’d imagine not, because it’s extremely dangerous and can result in the sad situation that exists now. Yet I see many blaming the driver of the Camry for the tragic death of Lenny Robinson, but that’s just not fair; at least not with the limited information given to us. There are things to learn from the story, though. A black car at night—potentially with its lights off, potentially beyond a downhill part of the road, potentially around a curve—is so difficult to see. I won’t even go into the whole Maryland drivers thing, because frankly I wouldn’t trust half of the other drivers on the highway to be paying attention and this isn’t an instance for joking. If you drive often in an area between Baltimore and DC, you’d probably realize that many highways and parkways snake between suburbs and do not always have fantastic visibility. We can’t assume too much about this situation, but calling 911 and being surrounded by several airbags for a few minutes gives you much better chances than walking out onto the highway and trying to fix an engine that usually costs thousands to actually fix something on. Perhaps the car was on an upward incline and couldn’t be rolled into the shoulder in neutral, but that’s all hearsay. The point is, there’s no sense in spending time outside the car wrenching on the highway when you could wait for a tow truck and emergency assistance, almost a sure thing, for the same time while protected by the safety features of a modern car (especially if you have money for the tow in the first place, which I’m guessing the typical Lamborghini owner should).

And to go into car-focused mode, this is a replaceable car as well. There are, in fact, people who would probably risk their lives for a completely unique car they couldn’t live without... a Gallardo Spyder is far more easily substituted than one’s physical independence, let alone one’s life. To fix most issues on a car takes as long as it would for a tow truck to arrive, and I’d like to know if anyone here would take their chances being hit by a car with the muscle and bone sustaining their life or an incredibly rigid chassis of metal and composites, crumple zones, air bags, a seat belt, and the muscle and bone that protects you evolutionarily from such impacts as, say, hitting your knee against the steering column of a crashed car. It’s very saddening that a kind person was lost to such a senseless occurrence; this is an incredibly sad time for those who were close to him and a waste of many years of a seemingly happy life. Hopefully someone’s mind will be changed by this better-publicized death to do the opposite, and hopefully “Batman’s” children (if still young) will be able to find a way through everything.

(At first I thought this person was “Batdad” with the M3, didn’t realize there were multiple sports car Batmen)

atrombs > JayZAyEighty thinks C4+3=C7 08/17/2015 at 12:36

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Maryland drivers. They’re no joke.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > JayZAyEighty thinks C4+3=C7 08/17/2015 at 12:39

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“but calling 911 and being surrounded by several airbags for a few minutes gives you much better chances than walking out onto the highway”

Never ever stay in the car in a breakdown like this. Get as far away from the road as possible. Getting rear ended at motorway speeds can kill you pretty easily.

BigBlock440 > JayZAyEighty thinks C4+3=C7 08/17/2015 at 12:45

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and being surrounded by several airbags for a few minutes gives you much better chances than walking out onto the highway and trying to fix an engine that usually costs thousands to actually fix something on.

From reading some of the comments, it sounded like he was in the Batmobile, not the Lambo, so he would not have been surrounded by airbags. Also, the engine would not have taken thousands to fix unless he completely blew it up (and even then, I bought a running engine for $450). I’ve had a car die on the highway and was able to get it fixed and back to work in just a few minutes. Sure I was completely out of the travel lanes and well off the road (I think that’s the biggest issue here), but it was a blown fuse that I was able to use the one for my power windows. It worked and cost me nothing but a few minutes to get back to work. (we’re going to ignore that it was the last time I drove the car because it barely got me out of the parking lot on the way home, and didn’t feel like chasing down a short so I junked it)

JayZAyEighty thinks C4+3=C7 > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 08/17/2015 at 12:45

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This is true, but it sounds as if the shoulder wasn’t really a whole shoulder or may have ended at a point before the car as it wasn’t able to get all the way into the shoulder. That would mean stand in front of the car as he did, or stand in the left lane. With the limited information I’m trying to not blame him for not being fully pulled over, and in that situation where being fully out of the left lane is impossible, I’d rather be in the car. Again, it sounds as if the alternatives are standing in the left lane or ahead of the car.

Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. > JayZAyEighty thinks C4+3=C7 08/17/2015 at 12:57

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Well I assume there was some way of getting away from the road like a verge or such, unless it was a bridge. I believe he was driving one of those batmobile replicas which are unlikely to have strong safety equipment.

ttyymmnn > JayZAyEighty thinks C4+3=C7 08/17/2015 at 12:59

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Last summer, our family was traveling in NC when we had a blowout. We pulled over to change the tire, but I took the kids and my wife out of the car and had them go up the hill beside the road, on the outside of the guardrail. No way in hell was I going to let them stay in the van. Had the blowout been on the left side of the van, I would have driven on the rim til I got off the interstate. I think the lesson here is that it’s just too damned dangerous to stay with the car. It’s easy to be a Monday morning quarterback in the safety of our house, but this sounds like an avoidable tragedy.

AM > BigBlock440 08/17/2015 at 13:32

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With the number of distracted and oblivious drivers on North American roads, I wouldn’t work on my car on the highway no matter how small an issue. It’s simply just too dangerous these days. I’d get out and get off the highway to call a tow truck. A car repair is not worth risking your life over.

BigBlock440 > AM 08/17/2015 at 13:43

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I’m far enough off the road that if someone is texting and just so happens to pick my 20’ spot during the 20 minutes I’m there to come flying off out of the hundreds or thousands of miles and 23.5 hours they could have, well that’s just my shit luck and if the car didn’t get you, a piece of space junk would. I’d sooner get back on the road than wait there for an hour or two just waiting for someone to plow into me just standing there.

AM > BigBlock440 08/17/2015 at 13:49

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Ontario highways are honestly getting so bad. The amount of motorcyclists that have been killed this summer alone is scary. Pair that with quite a few deaths from distracted driving such as the girls who crossed the highway and went head on with a van and you worry even driving down the highway that someone is going to take you out.

As someone who must drive on the highway Monday through Friday, I make sure my vehicles stay in perfect working condition to avoid having to stop. If I had to stop for any reason I’d be out of my car and as far off the highway as possible.

JayZAyEighty thinks C4+3=C7 > Twingo Tamer - About to descend into project car hell. 08/17/2015 at 16:18

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There’s lots of much-needed road work going on here in addition to an incredible number of overpasses, so it’s really difficult to imagine that he was both in a place where he could pull of completely and didn’t. If it was a Batmobile replica, then I definitely don’t doubt the likely terrible consequences of a collision.