RANT

Last night Kurt and I went past an accident in Des Moines. The SUV was lying on its side like this one. We circled back but there were already a lot of people there to help and someone had called 911. But we got to talking about how quickly there could be an accident.

I remember when we were driving back from vacation in Minnesota. My mother, sister, cousin Chris and I were driving through St. Cloud. I think we had the dog and cat with us. I was on the inside lane and had a green light. There was a car waiting to turn left. I thought he would wait until I was through the intersection but he may have been distracted by his passenger (a nun) and he pulled right in front of me. I slammed on the brakes and slid into the passenger's door. It was his fault and his insurance paid for it. We were stuck in St. Cloud so the resort owner's son came down and gave us a lift home. My poor little car stayed in St. Cloud to be fixed. My cousin loaned me a car and about a month later I took the bus to Minnesota to pick it up. It was never the same.

But it was a reminder of how quickly accidents can happen. So the other day when a woman turned left across several lanes talking on a cell phone it made me want to lobby for a no cell phones when driving. It really frosts me when people cannot turn from their lane into the corresponding lane but must cut across every lane on the road and almost clip me. (This doesn't even mention those who text while driving. I read today that truckers who text while driving are involved in 23% more accidents.

We used to have an Assistant Superintendent who lived in Des Moines and she used to read professional journals while driving back and forth to work. I tried it once and I think it is one of the dumbest things I have ever heard of.
AND today I was driving across 9th Street on my way back from the grocery store and one of these big honkers pulled up to the street from the North and barely paused at the stop sign. She (I am not sure it was this person driving but it was a woman with long hair) pulled out and turned West on the street (I was driving East) and the front of her bus pulled into my lane. In the first place she barely paused at the stop sign. In the second place she saw me coming and knew I was in my lane but it did not matter to her. I had to swerve to avoid being hit. I honked.

You know I have always driven defensively. I have told my sister and my nephew and countless others that I consider other vehicles on the road a gun pointed right at me. My sister rolled her truck and was thrown from it and wound up in a wheel chair. I know what can happen and so I am bitching. I want a law that says you must use a bluetooth if you are going to use a cell phone when driving (and even that is probably not something we should do) and that if you don't come to a complete stop and you cause an accident fines are doubled. Or something. I would like to see people who cut across lanes ticketed and people who are walking or riding bicycles on sidewalks and who ignore stop signs and lights ticketed. But it ain't gonna happen. I think that they should perhaps have to take a remedial reading course... I mean the words DON'T WALK are pretty easy to read but when you are out on campus you see a lot of kids that totally ignore those two words.

Well anyway I know it won't change. I just felt like grousing about it. Thanks for stopping by. Hugs (for everyone who drives safely) j