Joee, my God daughter by her request and my honor, along with her son Jimmy, was just hit from the rear by a lousy driver. Their Volvo wagon was smashed up, and she was taken to the hospital, but mainly for precautions. Fortunately, no one was hurt - there's just a couple of aches.

You're sitting there in your car, you're doing everything right, and WHAM!!!!!!!!! Someone else is doing nothing right.

I was hit once from the rear. Because of how I handled it, I'm still alive and not in a wheelchair. I'll pass this advice:

1) LEAVE your car in gear (automatic or manual) at a light - at least until the car behind you has arrived AND stopped. Leaving it in gear (and your foot on the brake) will act as a serious second brake and not send you as far into the intersection or the rear of the car in front of you.

2) Continually watch your rear view mirror until the next car behind you is in this static position.

3) If you have cars in front of you, and you see a car speeding towards your rear, lay on the horn - alerting everyone, including the speeder. You may wake someone up. It can't work against you, that's for sure.

4) If you are first in line at a light, with no cars in front of you, and you see a car speeding towards your rear - and with your car still IN GEAR - look left and right, and if you're clear, hit the gas and your horn. If not straight ahead, swerve the car to your left or right. If you can't swerve out of the way (which was my situation) your speeding up WILL lessen the impact of the crash... or could eliminate it altogether.

My situation:

In my mirror, I saw a car headed my way at c. 40-50 mph. I had my car in gear. I looked left and right, floored the gas pedal, and burned my tires straight ahead into and through the intersection. By the time they smacked me (3 drunk students, with no attempt to stop or swerve), I'd say their impact to my car was equal to about 10-15 mph, not 40-50... probably the difference between life and death.

THIS is ONE of my arguments for cars with sufficient horsepower, torque, and gearing. It's not a fetish. It's a SAFETY feature. Underpowered, undertorqued, slow-geared cars can't pull you out of split second situations... and we all face them. Trust me. My best cars, not all "sports" cars, have had the capacity to respond in the blink of my eye. Literally.

Make this a habit:

- STOP, GEAR & BRAKE ENGAGED
- WATCH REAR MIRROR UNTIL SAFE
- LEFT/RIGHT FORWARD CHECKS
- HORN AND ACCELERATOR READY

Your car is NOT your office, your desk, your telephone, your lunch room, your play station, bar, coffee shop, or chat room. It IS your transportation, and it IS your weapon.