[dragontamer]

> As an aside I have lots of friends who own fast cars who haven't gotten into accidents by avoiding them. Thankfully they were driving lighter vehicles.

And we all have friends who regularly avoid accidents in motorcycles. The difference is that you HAVE to avoid an accident to survive them, especially for motorcyclists (the extreme case of smallest but most agile vehicle). While if you're in a big car, you can have an accident and survive.

Its a very big difference. If you ever are a bit tired or distracted, the "trust my reactions to save me" technique will fail.

But if you're tired / distracted, but armored up in a 5000lb or 6000lb vehicle, you'll probably survive whatever hits you.

The survival rate of 18-wheelers (even when they're distracted and tired from driving 10+ hours a day) is quite high. Multi-ton armor just makes things safer.