I had to explain to friends--smart people, honest, concerned, well informed but not car people--yet again last week why I believe that even if something goes wrong with the car, and even if that was the result of a manufacturing flaw, the driver bears primary responsibility for what happens next.

The context, of course, was Toyota and particularly the perception that there are “poor innocents” serving jail time on convictions for reckless driving and similar offenses after accidents in which their cars might have malfunctioned.

First, I'd bet that fewer than one in 10 who claim that the car was at fault could muster any evidence to support that claim. Everyone in jail is innocent. After that? At best, if the cars truly malfunctioned, that's a contributing factor that might argue for a reduced sentence. But no driver who crashes and injures others is “innocent” or blameless.

Sometimes when I expound on this point, I remind myself how shocked I was to hear an extreme version from the late American Formula One champion Phil Hill. Whenever Hill mentioned a driver who'd died while racing, he'd always say so-and-so “killed himself.” When asked whether that was his belief, that the drivers were always at fault, Hill quoted another driver to the effect that “if you get hit by lightning, it's your fault for standing where the lightning wants to be.”

We all make choices, in other words, but too few of us are willing to accept responsibility.

I've had very few crashes in nearly 40 years of driving and even fewer for which I was legally at fault, yet I've never held myself blameless. I should have looked a second time, should have had better control of the car, should have anticipated the other driver's action, should have reacted more quickly or adjusted those factors--following distance, speed, sightlines--that would have given me more time to do so. Thinking this way helps me learn how to avoid trouble the next time.

Ditto when the car does something unexpected. Stuck throttle, faded brakes, busted clutch cable, tire blowout? Sitting behind that steering wheel means that I alone am responsible for what happens next. If I lose control, it's my fault. Only after that may I point to contributing factors and say, “I did the best I could in the circumstances.” And that's a claim I can make only if I really did do the best I could, which means I have to have a plan and knowledge beforehand. It's not the best I could do if all I know how to do is throw up my hands and say, “The car's broken,” or--Lord love a duck--pick up a cell phone and call 911.

It's a principle that goes back to at least the first time a boat left the safety of shallow water, which states that the commander of a vessel--whether it's a rowboat or a massive airliner--is responsible for his own life and that of others. We don't seem to have trouble understanding the basics; schoolchildren can tell you the difference between the captain of the Exxon Valdez and Capt. Chesley Sullenberger, “Hero of the Hudson.”

But it can sure be discouraging to discuss this in the context of what happens on the road. We've done such a miserable job of educating drivers, they don't even get this first principle. And if we don't make them learn how to do so before we issue them a license, how can we hold them responsible for failing to respond appropriately when things go wrong?

Also, we live in an era when mountain climbers get in trouble and then use their cell phones to dial up the rescue squad with no more embarrassment than you'd find in a driver who'd left his lights on in the grocery-store parking lot and had to call for a jump-start. Modern sailors set out to sea in storms because, well, that's why we have a Coast Guard, right?

Maybe this train left the station nearly 50 years ago, when Ralph Nader convinced America that if a Corvair crashed, it was General Motors' fault and only GM's fault. If it's your Corvair that just crashed, this can be a comforting illusion. No less so if it's your Toyota. But it's an illusion all the same.

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