No. 19: Bad Driving Habits
October 4th 2008 21:26
Everyday, while boarding vehicles, we each put on the mantel of mental safety by alluding ourselves into thinking we will safely complete our journeys and arrive at our destinations satisfied. We have to do this because riding in any vehicle on today's roadways is to play a sort of time/space/ motion roulette. Someone operates the wheel, and far too often, fate operates the outcome.
Recently, the world was shocked when the operator of the Los Angeles area commuter train that ran head-on into the freight train MAY have been text messaging just seconds prior to the fatal mishap. If this is true, he fell victim to distractional temptation much as many do also.
Who has not looked over to see a driver applying makeup, reading a book, map, magazine, or newspaper? Which one of us has not had to swerve quickly avoiding the driver who is cellphone talking or texting while trying to make a turn or lane change?
These, along with oversights by drivers listed in our last post, contribute to the mayhem causing mutilations and death on every country's roadways, waterways, rails and in the air.
Many people seem to think they are at home in a recliner just observing the outside-the-windshield world. They get too relaxed and too comfortable. Once I heard a dirt-track racer say that cars are too comfortable today. "A bit of shifting, rocking and tossing makes a more alert driver." Maybe he is right. It seems to work for many truckers I know.
INATTENTION IS AT THE TOP OF MY LIST FOR BAD DRIVING HABITS.
Next, I would have to list the drunken and drugged-out operators. Seen any of them lately? If you drive enough, you not only can answer "yes" to this one, but could add "frequently" as well. Most of us support local and regional law enforcement efforts to take these people out of vehicles. There is absolutely no excuse for their behavior.
Many of them are in denial. I once knew a man who was mad enough to break off his relationship with his lover because she had the local police wait outside his favorite bar to pick him up less than a block away. I think you will agree that she was just showing love and concern. When asked, later, how he felt about his behavior, he could only shout obscenities at her and saw no harm in his former drunken attempts to drive home. No -- he could never hit anyone or drive off the roadway --- not him, or so he thought.
I recall a wonderful family, in our former church of more than twenty years ago, where each parent was not only active in the church, but in community work too. The father was an attorney. The mother a school teacher. Each of the children were equally intelligent, sweet, and filled with potential for good.
On the way home from church, a drunk driver crossed the median dividing a four-lane highway, striking their automobile face on. It killed the father instantly! The mother died in the arms of a fellow churchperson who happened upon the scene. All the children were killed, except one who went home from church with another family for dinner. We all had a soul-searching period of mourning, but had difficulty reasoning how such fine people could be snuffed out so senselessly.
I PLACE DRUNK/DRUG-INDUCED DRIVERS NEXT ON MY LIST OF BAD DRIVERS. (The order of arrangement could vary.)
THE PATHOLOGICAL EGOTIST ranks high on the list. You have ridden with them. You have observed them with shock and awe. You have seen them being pushy, tailgating, making their own rules. They pass going uphill, pass in spite of double-yellow lines or solid lines adjacent to their lanes, pass on bridges, in curves and in the faces of on-coming traffic, etc. They see themselves as "kings of the roads." Rules are only obstacles to their destinations and people are just objects along the way. It is difficult for them to see others as real. When the mishap occurs, seldom can they ever admit fault.
Beware of any of these people. Please try to avoid them, but pay particular attention to where you are and what you are doing. Not only your life is at stake, but the lives of all those around you are also.
Until the next post, please keep it between the lines.
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