[blucruzer]

I can see that this is an old thread and don't know if Ptrope is still active on site but just have to say that I couldn't agree with him/her more! I'm getting tired of the car as cocoon model that the insurance industry and governmental agencies seem to be promoting while roundly ignoring any measures to better prepare drivers for the task of driving. I once read a Road & Track (I believe) article that said that "the average German school-
girl (their term) could drive circles around most (experienced) American drivers." In this era when you can purchase a flight simulator program for your home computer, why can't drivers be tested on a driving simulator that could simulate conditions/situations that would never be encountered in a typical driver's license test but could well come up in the course of actual driving? Too expensive? Maybe, until you or a loved one die in a(n) (avoid-
able) crash. It has always seemed strange to me that we can lose 3,000 lives in Iraq, (or 49,000 in Viet Nam) and there is an outcry but we can lose nearly 50,000 lives every year, year after year, in auto crashes, most of them avoidable, and, other than Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, no outcry except to say that the cars should be better. Bull@#$%!