I must have forgotten to turn off the cloaking device this morning.
There is a guy who passes me most mornings as I ride to work along Westport Road. This morning, though, I saw him before I got to Westport Road--I was on Lyndon Lane, alongside Westport Village. There is an access road that parallels Westport Road running between Lyndon Lane and Herr Lane, and he was on it heading for Lyndon Lane when I recognized his car. As he approached his stop sign, I started looking for bailout options, because it was becoming clear he was not going to stop for his sign.
Sure enough, he came out onto Lyndon Lane as I passed in front of him. I yelled several times in effort to get his attention before he saw me. I rode a few yards farther, then stopped to give him my opinion of his "stop" at the stop sign.
He eventually admitted that he didn't see me before he pulled out from the stop sign. He did say he saw the car coming the direction opposite me, leading me to think he gave no more than a cursory glance in my direction. I asked him why he didn't see me before he blew his stop sign, and he had no answer (keep in mind that, given the temperature was about 40F, I was wearing my Illuminite jacket, which is pretty bright yellow despite its many years of use). After asking that he look BEFORE he pulls away from stop signs, I went on my way.
As I rode to work, I started to wonder whether the guy realizes that, if I'm in the lane, the lane is mine, and that he is not to enter my lane from a stop sign until AFTER I pass by the intersection. Some folks seem to think they can just drive on in the lane when I'm there--in clear violation of Kentucky Revised Statutes.
I also think that there are many motorists who fail to see really obvious things like school buses. Like the woman who was arrested for hitting a school bus yesterday, insisting that the bus move, then driving away. She wasn't arrested for hitting the school bus. She was arrested for driving on a suspended license (DUI charges), failure to maintain insurance (hard to maintain insurance when one is not licensed to drive, even temporarily), and leaving the scene (never a good idea regardless of any other circumstances). In a bit of poetic justice, two law enforcement officers (in this case, U.S. Marshals) witnessed the event and stopped her.
Why do people like that still get to drive cars at all? Why are we as a society not better about keeping such folks out of the driver's seat? Your thoughts?
Boulder, Louisville, and press coverage of crashes
16 years ago
1 comment:
Yes, people fail to see all kinds of things: bicycles, pedestrians, cars, buses, trucks, and trains. Driving takes some skill and a lot of attention. Many (most?) lack the attention part of the equation.
As far as the woman in the linked story, society had already done all it could, short of jailing her, to keep her from behind the wheel. Hopefully, jail is where she'll sit next.
The real question is why do so many with suspended licenses continue to drive? I think it's because we view driving as a right, a necessity.
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