I have a few minutes before the work clock starts.
Yesterday, on 2 occasions, I thought I was witnessing the end of life for 2 people on 2 different occasions.
1. About a 16 year old boy gets off a city bus and starts running across this major and very busy street - without looking to see if there was any traffic. I'm serious, how that kid wasn't run clean over by that car, I'll never know, but that boy just barely escaped with his life.
2. Car comes up to the street I'm driving the semi. I have no clue why people see a truck and automatically think they MUST cut it off, pull out in front of it, do whatever - apparently we're just a nuisance. This driver flies up to this stop-sign, sees me coming and starts pulling out - without looking the other direction, where a car is coming at around 50 MPH. So, this woman is driving her car out into traffic without looking. Her head snaps the other way and again, I'm telling you - just BARELY gets it stopped in time. A T-bone collision at that rate of speed? She's dead, maimed, whatever, life ain't gonna be the same.
Is it really worth risking and possibly losing your life just to get ahead in traffic?
I don't think so.
I think everyone's license should be revoked and we should all be forced to go in for month's worth of driver training. Just the numbers in physical property damage going down would be worth the expense, not to mention the lives saved. The Department of Transportation is doing ads now to try and tell people not to text while driving.
I mean, really. Should anyone HAVE to be told not to do that? I know, thousands or hundreds of thousands or millions - who knows? - of people do it every day while driving. I watch these people and I agree with the conclusion that it's as bad as drunken driving. Cars weaving in and out of their lanes, trucks driving in and out of the emergency lane, all kinds of craziness in the name and for the sake of texting. I thought using a cell phone while driving was bad enough, this stuff is crazy.
Well, I had other thoughts but time has run out.
Have a great day!
ben
6 comments:
Something I just thought of, actually. On the interstates and many other places, there is nowhere to stop and consult a map, gps, text message on a cellphone etc. There used to be wide shoulders, or if you were on back roads, plenty of safe places to stop and do whatever.
Now, it can be dozens of miles between safe stopping places, and pulling off an interstate can sometimes be confusing, unpleasant or downright dangerous.
This might contribute to people doing things while driving that they might rather not.
BTW, I still have not seen Big Rig Steve get cut off by a car ever.
Sadly, his streaming video is gone now, replaced by a camera which refreshes every so often. T'ain't the same.
The difference between OTR drivers and city drivers is well known amongst drivers. OTR actually sympathize with local drivers because of the constant grind of dealing with people that have no clue, don't care and usually don't learn until they're dead; maimed; injured; car is trashed. I speak with them coming into our yard with material frequently. I bid them safe driving out there, they always come back and tell me what I have been saying: It's YOU that I bid safe driving to for having to drive in the city all day long.
I don't know about anywhere else, but there is ample room to pull of on shoulders on I-10. The off ramps have trucks pulled off on the side because there is so much room.
I mean, what did we do BEFORE we had cellphones and gadgets to push buttons with?
We paid attention to the road.
Before we had cellphone and gadgets, we had road maps and pay telephones. We had service stations that checked air in tires, watered your pets, checked your oil without being asked, pumped your gas, answered questions about the local facilities and even spoke English.
It was my understanding that non-emergency stopping on an interstate was illegal. My point was that it was my experience that there often IS no safe place to stop.
On our drive from NY to Texas, because there were two of us, one could drive while the other used the internet to find a motel, price a room, pick a non-smoking room, pay for it, get a reservation number and an interactive map to find it.
Same with restaurants and places of interest.
Driving alone is a whole 'nother experience youbetcha.
I honestly don't know whether it's legal or not to pull over on the Interstates just for the purpose of - texting, lol. I wouldn't know, the only time I have ever pulled over is because either my vehicle is broken down/flat tire or to help other motorists.
Kinda cool what you can do while inside your vehicle nowadays - to a point.
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