Originally Posted by atma
OK, OK. I'm just finally firing up the computer and to read a bunch of conjecture and heresay being passed off as reporting is a bit surprising. You were either being presumptuous or you were simply misinformed, but the cruise from Virginia to Indy at absolutely no stretch was doing 80. I was in the front for much of this cruise. I was also in the back. I was one of those people who got in the other lane and passed cars (although I did it quite slowly). I also did it backwards. You know how long it took to get from the front of the line to the back? I had to pull into the right lane and do 50. Fifty! Because the entire cruise was going so slow, I had to do 50 just to allow cars to pass me. Still took about 30 minutes to get all the way to the back. I assure you this, my friend. The cruise was not going 80.In the front of the cruise, edog had 'em a few ticks under the speed limit. In fact, even on the three trips I made from the very back to the very front, I was able to make it all the way up without doing an excessive speed (I never touched 85 the entire way out), although there did seem to be a consistent gap in the middle of the pack where trucks would get in and widen the line. for those stuck behind the gapper (it was the same person the whole time, but I won't name names), I don't understand why none of you passed him. Perhaps before you chastise Ernie in a public forum for leading the cruise at too high a rate of speed, you should check your facts. Especially considering that the accident happened in a construction zone where traffic was already bogged down and it was physically impossible for any of the cars to be speeding. It was stop and go traffic conditions. How were they going 80? Perhaps an apology is in order.
The simple fact is, whatever went wrong was not caused by speeding and it was not caused by people changing lanes. In fact, when you're part of a cruise, driving like you normally would on the highway, including making lane changes (with proper signalling) and dealing with other motorists does not make the cruise less safe. It actually accomplishes quite the opposite and makes it more safe. It's the false sense of safety created by feeling like you're part of a group, the highway hypnosis that sets in when you've stared at the back of the same car for 5 hours straight, and the increasing reactions (and decreasing reaction times) to any outside stimulus that gets passed down the line in the cruise that combine to make cruises less safe. As the group grows in size, these problems only become exacerbated. Throw in the problems any construction zone creates on any highway and you can see how things get dicey. Now, I'm not saying that these are insurmountable problems (obviously most of the cars got through without being damaged, yet despite my pretty decent amount of knowledge of the intimate details of the situation, all I can still say is I couldn't tell you exactly why it happened. Was it a young person? yes, you got one right. was he not paying attention? I wasn't there, were you? Yet somehow you know all the reasons it happened, and you even threw in texting with a question mark to show everyone just how clever you can be . Congratulations. You win the CSI/Encyclopedia Brown Award for not only figuring out all the missing pieces, but for hammering in a few made up ones as well.
Moving on, let's talk about Indiana's State Police Force and the 7-10 cars that got pulled over. I don't know about 6-9 of them, but one of them was me. The officer had good reason to pull me over and was quite cordial. He explained to me that some Camaros were observed racing each other. he did not specify if this was by a Trooper or a private citizen. I do know that I certainly did not get pulled over because someone called 911. I got pulled over because I broke the law. From what I understand, the officers did not "tear the cruise apart." They did, however, pick out a few people who they observed driving in a dangerous manner. Again, this reflects poorly on no one but the individuals involved. Not Edog, not the Indiana State Police and not the good citizens commuting on I-70 that day. Despite all of this, I never felt like the cruise was terrifying or even any more nerve-wracking than any other time I'm on an unfamiliar roadway and need to be extra alert.
That being said, I absolutely 100% period point blank agree with you that the Camaro5 Fest III Opening Cruise was as dangerous as it was because of the use of the hazards while the vehicles were being operated. No brake lights, no turn signals. I used them to stage at the beginning of the cruise, but turned them off before I got onto the highway. The gentleman in front of me turned his off immediately follwing the incident where I was within inches of hitting his rear end because he was within inches of hitting someone else's rear end. The car behind me was able to take evasive maneuvers and bypass the accident because he saw my brake lights and could react earlier than anyone else was able to. Lesson learned.
to end this rant, I'm going to just go ahead and apologize now if i was a little harsh here, Adam. I just don't see the point in pouring water on a drowning man. I'm guessin' the guy felt about as bad as he could over the whole situation. this thread seemed a bit in poor taste. You took it as an opportunity to point out just how bad he messed up (as if the evidence wasn;t already there), then trumped up your argument with wild guesses and information garnered from that old stalwart of reliable sources "from what I heard." I'm thinkin' your whole rant would've been equally effective had you just done some editing. But, if I was a jerk in any way to you, I was probably just passing that along. I should know better than that and be the bigger person, so I'm sorry.
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