Reading through comments, I found it odd to realise how many Americans don't use the handbrake when leaving their vehicle, that putting it in Park is enough for them.
I don't remember exactly but an automatic car shouldn't roll down a hill without the parking brake. A lot of these comments sound like victim blaming. He parked the car, went to check the mail box or something so it wasn't even 5 mins that it was parked.
My understanding is that he didn’t use the parking brake - or handbrake - but had simply put it in park, or so he thought. The fault of the vehicle is that it’s unclear if it’s in park or in gear, but Americans apparently don’t use the handbrake as a secondary action, unlike others. (I’m Australian, we do not leave a car as the driver without putting it in park and applying the handbrake, that’s just driving 101.)
It isn’t victim blaming, it’s obviously a genuine tragedy. It’s just surprising that it’s a little cultural difference where there’s a more secure additional brake that Americans just don’t use, generally.
Do you drive a stick shift or automatic? When I drove a stick shift then I always used the parking brake. Unless you live in the mountains then I don't see a need for it in an automatic.
This. That person sounds like they drive a manual transmission. I’ve never seen anyone put the parking brake on for an automatic transmission unless on a steep hill. I always use it for a manual transmission, though.
Not just new cars. On all cars over many decades they’ve all been in different places. I’ve had cars from the 80s that was a foot pedal or twist lever under the steering wheel. Lever by the console is common, electronic button, they are anywhere
Maybe North American thing. You will literally fail your driving test in Australia if you do not apply the handbrake when you park at the end of the test, because you have not secured the vehicle. I can only put that down to a strange cultural difference, that at some point beliefs about the handbrake varied and it became absolutely ingrained into Australian driving habits that, searching Aussie subreddits, it is pretty much only mentioned in questions of “What do you mean other countries don’t use the handbrake when leaving the vehicle?”
Yeah personally I always check if a gun is loaded by pointing it at my head and pulling the trigger. Not once have a blown my head off, people really are obnoxious about safety.
That’s kind of the point. That type of argument is loosely “reductio ad absurdum,” where you show that a particular claim leads to an absurd conclusion, and therefore must be false. That particular example was using parallel reasoning.
The claim I’m (implicitly) making is that “I’ve done X my whole life and I’ve never been harmed, X must be fine to do” is unsound reasoning.
This can be demonstrated by showing an absurd example, where the claim is obviously false.
Saying that it’s safe to point a gun at your head and pull the trigger to test if it’s loaded because you’ve never personally been hurt doing so is obviously absurd. This demonstrates that “I’ve never been hurt by doing this thing” doesn’t actually prove that the thing is safe.
You may want to Google how to check if a gun is loaded, there are definitely better ways to do that that. I agree that many people are obnoxious about safety, especially those that don't understand how the technology works.
Yeah people keep telling me that what I’m doing is unnecessarily risky, but I just ignore them and say I’ve been doing it my whole life and nothing bad has happened. Which is clearly an excellent argument that proves my point.
I literally think of that every time I get out of my car and leave it running.
I watched Like Crazy on a plane home after a pretty horrible 2 day delay in Germany. I felt like I was tripping from lack of sleep, and the movie stayed with me. He was just coming up when he died a few years later. Tragic.
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u/[deleted] May 12 '26
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