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Sometimes the advice given to avoid car accidents is, however useful, not terribly good at sinking in to our easily-distracted heads. It can take an event out of the ordinary, such as the recent crash that Jerry Seinfeld was involved in, to really draw attention.
According to reports, the comedian was travelling down a slip road to join a major highway when his brakes failed, as did the emergency brake. He therefore spun the wheel sharply, spinning the car into a skid, and up an embankment where the vehicle, a classic Fiat sports car, overturned.
No other vehicles were involved in the car crash, Seinfeld was not thought to have been drinking, and no summonses have been issued. Praise, in fact, has been offered to the comedian, as his actions are very likely to have averted a more serious car accident, as being without brakes on a major road is particularly dangerous.
Seinfeld joked "Because I know there are kids out there, I want to make sure they all know that driving without braking is not something I recommend, unless you have professional clown training or a comedy background, as I do. It is not something I plan to make a habit of."
Unlike most crashes, where the news can be speedily forgotten, the fact that this was 'that guy out of that show' somehow makes it more significant if you were a viewer. It seems to be related to the sense that we all have, that something happening to someone we care about will claim more of our attention than to a stranger.
But very few of us know the comedian. It has been argued that the affection we 21st-century types develop for our celebrities is a form of compensation for the reduction in the range of our close relationships, in which these people we invite into our houses weekly are almost a part of the family group for us. Any personal injury that they suffer is felt as if it were an injury within our tribe.
(We can also be fairly sure it's not reciprocated. When Emo Phillips was asked "Did I see you on TV yesterday?", he said "I don't know, it doesn't work the other way".)
This suggests empathy is something that needs to be earned if we're to learn from it. If our future interactions are to be mediated by facebook and bebo, then there's a fairly good chance we may learn nothing from the car accidents that strangers suffer. Perhaps, then, it's just as well that Seinfeld's response to the broken brakes, and his decision to wear a full seatbelt, are exemplary.
