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Posts Tagged ‘highways’
Vallario, a Prince George’s County Democrat and a defense attorney, has long been viewed as the chief
Politician
obstacle to passage of tough drunk-driving legislation in Maryland.
(The politics of Maryland Unsafe Driving. Vallario’s MUD.)
Friday is a holiday for federal workers and many other people. Expect a Christmas getaway on the highways, at Union Station and the D.C. region’s airports on Thursday.
Great season traffic information from the Washington Post:
via Dr. Gridlock – The week ahead for traffic, transit.
(Are you planning a safe-driving holiday?)
A fairly typical December snowstorm glazed the region’s highways with a crusty white crud that caused scores of fender benders as people cut short the workday and many school systems shut down early.
The Washington Post writes about yesterdays mini-blizzard and the traffic issues Marylanders experienced:
via A slippery, slushy and slow day along snowy roads.
(Unfortunately a fairly typical snowstorm from weather to human behavior.)
HANCOCK — A 73-year-old Hancock man was killed Thursday night when he was struck by a car as he was walking across Md. 144 at Casper Road to retrieve his mail, Maryland State Police said.
Read the ENTIRE story at the Herald-Mail.com:
via Maryland: Pedestrian killed near Hancock.
(We don’t know what happened other than a pedestrian was killed. Imagine living a wonderful life. You are 73 years old. One day while you are going out to the curb to check your mail, WHAM! You’re dead. The driver of the car has to live with the guilt the rest of her life. Making things much worse of course is that we are in the Christmas season.
Perhaps this is a good time for everyone to make the commitment to drive safely. Drive to arrive – alive. Drive to be conscious of the safety of those around you.
Th bad-driving pandemic that plagues our state will never subside UNLESS each of us makes a conscious decision to change our driving behavior. There are too many Marylanders driving as though they are immortal even when six-hundred die in Maryland every year. Countless animals are killed, people are injured.
Stop at stop signs and red lights out of respect for the law and the safety of others.
End aggressive behaviors that make our highways dangerous.
Do not drink and drive.
Set an EXAMPLE for others this holiday season. It may be the greatest gift you can give. Fewer dead and injured during the holidays is a great idea. You think?)
According to AAA, the gas price increase has tracked the rise in the price of crude oil on world markets to more than $80 a barrel. AAA also called the recent weakness of the dollar “perhaps the strongest factor contributing to recent growth.”
Read the ENTIRE story as told by Michael Dresser:
(Is this the change you voted for? The dollar is down, spending is up and out of control in the USA, and the price of fuel goes up again. Who is hurt? Guys and gals like you and me. Young people, seniors, retirees. While it may not be a tax, the current administration’s policies are still emptying our wallets. )
The trooper explained that Roylance had just run afoul of a new law, which took effect Oct. 1 and has been woefully underreported by myself and others, requiring motorists to move over by a lane or to slow down when passing an emergency vehicle on the side of the road with its red or blue lights on.
via Flashing lights say: ‘Move over’ – baltimoresun.com.
(STOP the MUD agrees with Michael Dresser that this new law was woefully under reported. Maryland now requires, as does West Virginia that we are aware of, drivers to move left (or right as the case may be) or slow down (if movement is not possible) when passing emergency vehicles on the side of the road. Maryland SHOULD BE using roadside signs to warn drivers as West Virginia is doing.
Stop the MUD hopes that public safety employees both on and off duty will extend the SAME safety conscious behavior to Maryland drivers. Maybe it can even be done by not having to legislate the requirement. We’d like to see:
- Public safety vehicles driving the speed limit when said vehicles do not have their emergency lights activated.
- Public safety vehicles beginning to stop for yellow lights instead of blasting through the intersection.
- Wise use of lights and siren and department policies limiting the number of units using lights and sirens going to the same event.
- Mandatory emergency vehicle training for law enforcement, fire, and emergency medical employees.
- Drivers of public safety vanity plates OBEYING the traffic laws.
- Public safety vehicles stopping at red lights and stop signs.
- Stop tailgating vehicles in the number one lane at excessive speeds and allowing other vehicles to tailgate the public safety vehicle.
We want YOU to start setting the example on Maryland roads and highways now that you have legislated YOUR safety – and really didn’t go out of your way to tell us.)
Vernon Betkey, the Director of the Maryland Highway Safety Office said, “If we eliminated drunk driving on our highways, and also had 100 percent seatbelt usage, we would cut the amount of fatalities we have by one half.”
via WBIR.com | Knoxville, TN | Study: Drunk driving is on the rise.
(Perhaps if our own off-duty police set an example on our roads and if the police did not have to be arrest-and-book tax collectors the situation might also improve. A concerted effort to find and arrest aggressive drivers rather than run radar traps might also be effective. The seat belt argument is always the easiest one to drop in the media. Seat belt compliance might mitigate the carnage to some extent, but until Marylander’s decide to actually drive safely the proximate causes of injury accidents will not change. Oh and, DUI is not the only cause of fatal accidents. There is MORe to safe driving than wearing a seat belt and arresting drunk drivers. Those are just the two easiest things for politicians and bureacrats to talk about.))
A tractor-trailer struck and killed a pedestrian on Interstate 95 in Dundalk shortly after 2 p.m. Thursday,
Sphere: Related ContentOutrageous driving is now celebrated in a TV commercial. How special. Volkswagen has a commercial with three people in a new VW, two men in the front seats and one hysterical female in the back. I didn’t pay any attention to the commercial until the woman started SCREAMING, “SHOOT THE GAP, SHOOT THE GAP.”
She wanted the driver to maneuver the vehicle so the car would drive between two large semi trailer trucks at high speed on a busy highway. She wouldn’t stop screaming until he did. I couldn’t believe a car company would create such a commercial. It was beyond comprehension. Is this anthropological evidence that unsafe behaviors are a routine part of our driving culture now?
Now any of us driving highways with trucks are going to have to watch out for idiots looking for a gap to shoot. My guess is that truck drivers won’t be too happy with what we should call the Volkswagen Gap Maneuver. As an advocate of safer driving I see the commercial as grossly irresponsible.
It is not funny. It certainly didn’t sell me on Volkswagen.
Thanks to our reader “The Human Car” from Baltimore Spokes we have the video! The dealership mentioned appears to be in Pennsylvania.
“We need to develop a traffic safety culture that does not condone driving while distracted ” said Vernon Betkey director of Maryland s highway safety office.
via Highway officials fight rise in ‘distracted driving’ accidents | Washington Examiner.
(Yes, and we must also deal with the culture of recklessness on our highways as well. Too many dead and too many injured.)
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