Thoughtless motorists create roadway dangers

The Island Now

I was driving home the other day from my job in Mineola via Jericho turnpike to Glen Oaks Village, when a careless driver cut me off in a most reckless manner. 

This is not the first time but it was distrubing none the less. Let me mention a few of my driving gripes about careless drivers who endanger all of us on the road. I’ve seen drivers so much in a hurry they plow through red lights, even in busy intersections. This I feel is like playing Russian Roulette with other peoples lives. 

Now in my opinion as I understand the rules of the road and when the light turns to yellow that means slow down not to go faster. 

Then there are the stop signs, I always thought that means to stop and look both ways, not to go pass the sign and go. The other day in New Hyde Park I saw a woman with three kids and a dog in her car, go through a stop sign while she was on her cell phone which, by the way, was not hands free. I guess that phone call was more important than the lives she had in her car. 

Then there is that situation where you try to cross an intersection to get to the other side, and a driver sees this and goes faster preventing you from getting across as if they are so much in a hurry. 

Another pet peeve of mine is drivers who fail to signal thinking I’m a mind reader. What does it take to use your finger to signal, a second maybe? Oh, I get it, they maybe have a broken finger.  

I have another gripe and that is those drivers who travel through our neighborhoods as if they were race ways and by doing so endanger our children who are going to school or playing.  

Here is another one that really takes the cake and that is I saw a woman who while driving was scratching off a lottery ticket in Floral Park. The only ticket that woman ought to be winning is a traffic ticket. There is this six-hour volunteer course that allows drivers the opporunity to save money on car insurance. Well I think such a course ought to be given let’s say every five years and to be mandatory or else the licence can be revoked. This course I believe will reinforce the rules of the road. 

We need to make our roads safer. All of our lives depend on it. Let us not be driving while under the influence of stupidity.

 

Frederick R. Bedell Jr.

Glen Oaks Village

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