dave

Everyone that does stupid shit on the road is an asshole. Lives are in the balance. Whether or not you're having a bad day is irrelevant; doing anything but focusing on driving is inexcusable.

Speed isn't the issue; there was a recent article that compared German drivers to those of the United States. Germany has a much lower death rate in vehicles than the US, despite the fact that they're zipping along at 140mph on the autobahn. The difference is that they pay attention and don't make any sudden movements.

Dad was telling me yesterday about how one of his friend's friends is paralyzed because he was driving down the road, dropped a cassette, took off his seatbelt to get it, lost control of the car, flipped it, went half-way out the sunroof and got crushed. I told him "Well, that sucks for him, but I don't feel the least bit sympathetic. He did something stupid and he paralyzed himself. Better him than someone who <b>wasn't</b> doing anything stupid." He agreed with that logic.

So yeah, I'm all for empathy and all, but not when it comes to driving. In the two days I've been driving by myself, I can't count the number of times where I've had to dodge someone, apply the brakes in a rather urgent manner, etc. Because they're not paying attention? That doesn't fix the broken collar bone or the severed arm I manage to avoid.

Let's not make excuses for fucking assholes, shall we? You can't focus on driving? Get off the fucking road.

[ Edit - The I key on my keyboard is dying and I left one out. ]