Many Can Speed, But Few Can Brake
November 6, 2021 at 3:27 a.m.
Many Can Speed, But Few Can Brake
By Chip Davenport-
He told me, “Anyone can drive as fast as their car can go, but there are very few who can stop it safely.”
When I read about Las Vegas Raiders receiver Henry Ruggs III crashing his Corvette while operating at 156 miles per hour I thought about what Joe told me when I was still a high school student. Ruggs’s collision resulted in a fatality, a 23-year-old woman operating a Toyota.
He was operating his Corvette under the influence of alcohol, twice the Nevada legal limit (0.15 – the limit 0.8). He was in a city setting moving ridiculously beyond the speed limit. His ability to slow down, the way Joe likes to put it, was impaired.
A professional athlete is going to get a lot of attention when he or she is caught operating a vehicle above the speed limit, and impaired by alcohol, drugs, or distracted driving (e.g., texting).
Our highways are chock full of impaired drivers. Yes, here in Kosciusko County there are numerous drivers impaired in some manner and exacerbating the problem by operating at speeds they have no business attaining.
There are rare occasions these local individuals are caught, or face oncoming traffic, lose control of their vehicles, and consequently place themselves in the trouble Ruggs is currently in. The Raider receiver might face up to 26 years, and the media will put him on trial numerous times before he faces his trial date.
In a time long ago Al Davis, the raiders’ original owner, would have likely kept Ruggs on the payroll, but everything professional sports franchises do these days is easy to catch online, or on numerous sports channels. If Davis would have kept him on the payroll, innocent until proven guilty, until his verdict was served, there would be a wave of outrage. I believe the NFL would not have allowed Ruggs to stay on the payroll, either.
Private citizens, for lack of a better term, are everywhere breaking the same rules, and for now they’re just lucky. Will every one of the intoxicated speeders meet the fate Ruggs faces? Probably not, and if they engage in fatal wrecks, the news won’t travel beyond a few counties within a TV station’s viewing area.
I leave you with the advice my brother-in-law gave me. Anyone can speed, but not everyone can safely slow down.
I’ve exceeded 120 miles per hour in a vehicle, but I was sober as a judge, and I was on a stretch of Canadian highway in the southern plains of Ontario, Canada. It still wasn’t right, and I was lucky. I caught flak from my wife when I thought she would, instead, be impressed by how fast I could get our car going.
I move to an experience last weekend where rather than asking if a speeder can slow down safely, I wondered, after this weekend, if people who vape can quit more easily than cigarette smokers.
Vaping was the solution to transition smokers who could not quit cold turkey. The cigarette substitute, however, appears to be even more addictive than the cigarettes preceding it.
Case in point, last Saturday at Ohio Stadium, I witnessed something I would never see in my beloved Buckeyes’ Ohio Stadium last Saturday against Penn State.
I’m not talking about the long scoop and score run by hefty Ohio State defensive lineman Jaron Cage.
Two gentlemen sat two seats down from me in Ohio Stadium at the Ohio State football game versus Penn State. Suddenly, I saw smoke, much more smoke in fact than I’ve seen from a cigarette puff. I’ve gone to Ohio State games every ear with my son Parker since 2016 as well as several games for decades before then.
The “twin towers” took, without sneaking, noticeably big puffs from their vaping sticks. Ohio State’s security and usher crews have sharp eyes. They’ll detect, in a fully packed 105,000-fan crowd, excessively drunk fans, and other irritating types of spectators.
The security staff zoomed in on the vapers and warned them they would be removed from the game if the puffed again.
$320 in, and two pre-bought cans of beer for each bold vaper in hand, they dared to, then did take another hit. The security staff without reservation came right to the section and ejected the violators early in the first quarter, and suddenly my son and I had much more room in a seat that is set up for less than one full-sized tukus on its bleachers.
All I can think to myself is vaping must really do something for these two big fellas to be compelled to take a hit after a warning. I’m assuming they weren’t season ticket holders like my family is (we share games throughout the year). They would have known the event staff at Ohio Stadium means what they say.
I hear smokers and vapers say they can quit anytime, but it seems, as it was in this case, a craving just as hard to control as managing a car at exceedingly high speeds.
He told me, “Anyone can drive as fast as their car can go, but there are very few who can stop it safely.”
When I read about Las Vegas Raiders receiver Henry Ruggs III crashing his Corvette while operating at 156 miles per hour I thought about what Joe told me when I was still a high school student. Ruggs’s collision resulted in a fatality, a 23-year-old woman operating a Toyota.
He was operating his Corvette under the influence of alcohol, twice the Nevada legal limit (0.15 – the limit 0.8). He was in a city setting moving ridiculously beyond the speed limit. His ability to slow down, the way Joe likes to put it, was impaired.
A professional athlete is going to get a lot of attention when he or she is caught operating a vehicle above the speed limit, and impaired by alcohol, drugs, or distracted driving (e.g., texting).
Our highways are chock full of impaired drivers. Yes, here in Kosciusko County there are numerous drivers impaired in some manner and exacerbating the problem by operating at speeds they have no business attaining.
There are rare occasions these local individuals are caught, or face oncoming traffic, lose control of their vehicles, and consequently place themselves in the trouble Ruggs is currently in. The Raider receiver might face up to 26 years, and the media will put him on trial numerous times before he faces his trial date.
In a time long ago Al Davis, the raiders’ original owner, would have likely kept Ruggs on the payroll, but everything professional sports franchises do these days is easy to catch online, or on numerous sports channels. If Davis would have kept him on the payroll, innocent until proven guilty, until his verdict was served, there would be a wave of outrage. I believe the NFL would not have allowed Ruggs to stay on the payroll, either.
Private citizens, for lack of a better term, are everywhere breaking the same rules, and for now they’re just lucky. Will every one of the intoxicated speeders meet the fate Ruggs faces? Probably not, and if they engage in fatal wrecks, the news won’t travel beyond a few counties within a TV station’s viewing area.
I leave you with the advice my brother-in-law gave me. Anyone can speed, but not everyone can safely slow down.
I’ve exceeded 120 miles per hour in a vehicle, but I was sober as a judge, and I was on a stretch of Canadian highway in the southern plains of Ontario, Canada. It still wasn’t right, and I was lucky. I caught flak from my wife when I thought she would, instead, be impressed by how fast I could get our car going.
I move to an experience last weekend where rather than asking if a speeder can slow down safely, I wondered, after this weekend, if people who vape can quit more easily than cigarette smokers.
Vaping was the solution to transition smokers who could not quit cold turkey. The cigarette substitute, however, appears to be even more addictive than the cigarettes preceding it.
Case in point, last Saturday at Ohio Stadium, I witnessed something I would never see in my beloved Buckeyes’ Ohio Stadium last Saturday against Penn State.
I’m not talking about the long scoop and score run by hefty Ohio State defensive lineman Jaron Cage.
Two gentlemen sat two seats down from me in Ohio Stadium at the Ohio State football game versus Penn State. Suddenly, I saw smoke, much more smoke in fact than I’ve seen from a cigarette puff. I’ve gone to Ohio State games every ear with my son Parker since 2016 as well as several games for decades before then.
The “twin towers” took, without sneaking, noticeably big puffs from their vaping sticks. Ohio State’s security and usher crews have sharp eyes. They’ll detect, in a fully packed 105,000-fan crowd, excessively drunk fans, and other irritating types of spectators.
The security staff zoomed in on the vapers and warned them they would be removed from the game if the puffed again.
$320 in, and two pre-bought cans of beer for each bold vaper in hand, they dared to, then did take another hit. The security staff without reservation came right to the section and ejected the violators early in the first quarter, and suddenly my son and I had much more room in a seat that is set up for less than one full-sized tukus on its bleachers.
All I can think to myself is vaping must really do something for these two big fellas to be compelled to take a hit after a warning. I’m assuming they weren’t season ticket holders like my family is (we share games throughout the year). They would have known the event staff at Ohio Stadium means what they say.
I hear smokers and vapers say they can quit anytime, but it seems, as it was in this case, a craving just as hard to control as managing a car at exceedingly high speeds.
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