OK, Mitch. This one is for you.
Avid TC.com reader and commenter Mitch posed a question through my e-mail:
I’m from Santa Cruz – You know, Highway 1, Big Sur, 1,000 foot cliffs straight down to the waters edge.
My question is: How come we never have any “rollovers” in our news?
Yet, I’ve been (in Tucson) five years and every day there is a rollover.
He also noted many of the rollovers happen on Interstate 10:
There’s one road, its wide, paved AND a straight shot from here to Phoenix, How do Tucsonans do it?
The thing was constructed so a 747 could land on it for Pete’s sake. (Who IS Pete by the way)?
To answer Mitch’s inquiries:
1. Why aren’t there rollovers in Big Sur?
There are few, if any, rollovers in places that have highways abutting sheer cliffs that drop to the sea, such as your former Highway 1 in Big Sur and my former Highway 101 in southern Oregon, for a simple reason.
The vehicles don’t have time to roll over when they lose control. They simply smash, crash and then dash through the guardrail right down with a splash into the water.
No room to roll/Photo by Ryn Gargulinski
2. Who is Pete?
The “Pete” from the term “for Pete’s sake” goes back to the Bible, according to Phrases.org.uk, which offers this explanation:
“For Pete’s Sake” – The phrase is simply a polite version of a common and profane expression involving the name of Christ. We’d surmise that the original ‘Pete’ was St. Peter.” From “Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins” by William and Mary Morris.
The explanation is kind of boring, as I was hoping Pete was a tad more mysterious. But it also falls into line with a phrase I used to think I heard as a kid in church. When congregation members said en masse, “Thanks Be To God,” I actually thought they were saying “Thanks Peter God.” I thought it cute God had such an earthy name like Peter.
Any other rollover theories out there?
“Any other rollover theories out there?” Hmmm…van overloaded (at least 3-4 times the recommended occupancy), Probably bald tires, perhaps improperly inflated, Paranoid Paco behind the wheel, drivin’ like a bat out of Hell, feverishly checking his rearview mirror more than the road ahead, Juanita yelling at the guy with the shoe in her eye, etc… Gee, I dunno, that’s a tough one Rynski. 🙂
hahahahahhahahahahaha!
I especially like the “shoe in her eye” theory!
Now why didn’t I think of that!
p.s. you had me laughing aloud on that one.
p.p.s. I also meant rollovers IN GENERAL, not nec. overloaded fleeing immigrants.
I in NO WAY mean to make light of this ever increasing tragedy. Just that when you hear or experience something often enough, it has a numbing effect. I said this in the old Citizen, that when applying for a drivers licence, there should be a REACTION TIME test. Liberal of course. There are quite a few things that are considered impairment under the law. Reaction time of 3 toed sloth? Here’s your license!
The rollover crashes here are almost always vans full of illegal aliens running from the authorities. They are overfilled and traveling at ridiculous speeds when they roll.
Driving at an unsafe speed, driving under the influence of America’s drug of choice; regardless of the immigration status of the driver, these are probably behind most of the roll-overs. We can reform immigration law, but getting America off drugs, that’s a tough nut.