this evening my friend Elfi called me - she came yesterday late at night back from Austria, where her parents live - since her old father is very sick, she visits them every view weeks for a weekend. Since she often starts her return here to Nurenberg very late in the evening she often drives at very high speed - in my minds eye much too much high speed her way back. - you know - we don't have speed limitations on the highway here in Germany - in most European countries, even in France there are speed limits on all streets, if course not as much as in United States, but in Germany all efforts for more speed limitations failed by the strong stubborn resistance of strong German car lobby.
When long time (about 20 years) ago I was living for 3 months in the USA, where in that time still a lot of these big american cars were slowly cruising around american roads & highways.
If you see American films here, you imagine that Americans drive wild & crazy like in all these gangster chasing Miami Vice & Road Movie stuff etc. (shooting around & driving recklessly high speedly around seems to be the main theme of most american action films) - But No - they don't!
In the beginning I was shock surprized when I came there & noticed how slowly they were cruisin' there around - Everywhere speed limitations - wow - incredibly for an European of that days. This large country - these long distances - & yet they crawl so slowly. - But after a while you got used to it & maybe this wisely diminuished speed is much more helpful to the general health.
But when after this nice Massachussetian time I came back to Europe I was twice shocked, when I noticed all this tiny furious European cars, driving around on the streets quick & squirming, like crazy little bugs - it seemed much more aggressive, than this slow car riding in the USA.
Distances are much shorter here, but people here seem to be much more eager to reach their goals within seconds. (Or at least because they are allowed to. Is this an anti-aggression concept by our governments that people can get rid of their aggressions by hitting their gas pedals to the limits of speed? - we have much less victims shot by guns & other weapons than in the USA - we kill each other by car accidents..)
Of course we have speed limitations too..
- because we have kilometers & US.anians use still miles (&yards & feet & toes (&toe-nails) etc. as length measures) here's a link where you can convert miles to kilometes & countrarywise: convert mile to km
(But be careful to use it - because if you would convert all american miles into kilometers, America would get much smaller)
In towns & villages you can drive only 50 km (31 miles) - in some districted aereas only 30 km (18,64 miles) - on the country roads about 80 km (49 miles) or 100 km (you can guess what's that in miles) - but on the highway - that's the Eldorado of the real crazy speed maniacs - there are also speed restricted routes on the high way - but there's still a lot of routes where you can drive to limit. -
I remember long time ago, when Marisa a former half-italian friend of mine once drove with me in her old fashioned Mercedes sports car, a cabriolet, on the highway & probably she wanted to show off, she accelerated speed on & on - & as nice as it is to drive in an open cabriolet on a sunny day over the country side - it's not in the least nice, if you drive with 230 km (143 miles) over the highway - the wind hurts, your own hair hits you like whips (I had long hair in that time) - you get dizzy by just looking outside - oohm well & I got really scared, feared that we'd crash any moment or get out of control - that's not my idea of fun if my life is at stake. & do you know what those people who drive like crazy usually do? - They in most cases laugh loudly (especially if they notice you getting scared) & hear very loud music - they want to get the total adrenaline kick - well & then when by high chance they reach their ultimate goal - that's death - then when laughter & music & even shock & death cries have died away it all gets very silent, motionless & quiet for a long time & I guess that by then also the adrenaline kick very slowly fades away to nothingness..
OK - I survived that & also the view crazy racers I drove with in my youth after discos etc.
so after this intermezzo I continue to tell what happened to my friend Elfi yesterday on the highway.
She was returning on the highway from Austria to Nurenberg, some times at the speed of 200 km (124 miles) - at that speed someone tried to pass her - she was also on the passing (the left side of the way) - he came much to close - the changed to the the right (where it is totally forbidden to pass & passed her there - while he was besides her he gave her the finger - really rude - she had the feeling he was driving really dangerious - then he passed aggressively the next car etc. & then about 4 cars in front her there was a crash - this mad driver had crashed in the back of a big, but probably very slow van - 2 of the following cars crashed also in - my friend Elfie just escaped a crash by braking very hard & had also luck that nobody crashed in her car - she had then to wait for 5 hours - police, firebrigade, ambulance & finally mortuary van came - the young rude racer was dead - Elfi described him as about 20 years old, short black hair. Elfi was so shocked - she puked outside her car - later on on that long hours of waiting she tried to sleep a bit in her car.
Maybe he was in an angry mood or mad at anyone or everyone - he payed with his life for these crazy momemts of wild rage & aggression. Elfi said she felt sorrow for his parents..
Probably all these involved cars had been driving with that high speed, that the van in front of them maybe driving half of their speed had the same effect, like he was just standing there on the street. If you drive with speed 200 km (124 miles) you need 500 meters to stop.
As sad as it is - later on I just thought, he gave her the finger & within one minute later he was dead (don't mess with Elfi - she's a Gipsy(from her mother) & she still knows to talk in that seldom Gipsy language)- but I mean this doesn't deserve death , but maybe he gave the whole world the finger & was in a state of mind where he didn't care anymore about others life or his own life & maybe then God just took his saving hand away from him & just let him go to his blinded destiny..
