Too Powerful

            I have worked a recent string of lethal car accidents involving expensive exotic cars.  It got me thinking about having too much power. The car as in 0-60 in three-ish seconds with an engine of five hundred hoarse power or more. The driver as in someone who ignores the law because his or her shirts are tailor made.

            We don’t let ten year olds drive. They are too small in so many ways. Its one thing not to be able to reach the controls, another not to be able to reach for the wisdom needed to navigate traffic.  Some people turn ten when they get into a sports car. I so often see privileged people getting into accidents for no other reason they feel the laws of mankind don’t apply to them. Physics has something to say about this. So does Darwin.  I have never known of an Ferrari winning and argument with a trash truck or abutment. I’m not picking on Ferrari, Maserati or McLaren will do. Okay fine you’re a GT freak or perhaps you will only allow a Bugatti into your dreams. Just pick a super car and stick with me. Gads I can hear the snidely voices of the read about it type, cant even afford the floor mats, snot nosed wussburger getting all flabbergasted at me. Blow the aghast out your nose, wipe up and lets move on.

            A special investigative team will sometimes come out to an accident and record every piece of evidence. The position of vehicles and strewn parts is meticulously recorded with the help of a laser based robotic Total Station. One can also see these amazing machines on construction sites. This device will give the nearly exact position with elevation of every bit they decide to record. Later all the rocket science of weight and velocity is computed by someone that knows what they are doing. Glad it’s not me because a five-hour on scene time turns into three days or so of calculating and weeks of interviews. Photos taken at the scene are included into a remodeling of the accident.

            I photograph things important to the investigator, every side of the vehicles and details of some parts. I am sometimes amazed at what blood will be found on. Pieces of front bumper or headlight with some human matter painted on says body contact even too an amateur like me. It’s the ability to play the scene backward that starts the narrowing of the investigators concentration. They are tested and exhaustively reviewed in continuing education. Glad I just take the photos mostly done on manual. Program is only used for close ups with flash set to TTL. I go back and forth between the settings.

            No million-dollar car is safe with defective parts like say a loose nut behind the wheel. Before you admire someone in a tailored shirt without a tie wreaking perfume, imagine him in an expensive go-cart becoming road coating. That will take the shine off the rims.