Stop the Maryland Unsafe Driver

Posts Tagged ‘risk’

VBF has the bad news that the Three Foot Passing and Following too close law was tabled in the House Transportation Committee by what was eventually an 11-10 vote. Someone who was there wrote:

via TheWashCycle.com:

StoptheMUD’s comment below: (By the way, please do visit “The Wash Cycle.”

(I’m a Republican and I believe in the Maryland three-foot bicycle safety rule. One wonders the real reason why a Republican in Virginia is keeping bicycling risks greater by ignoring the three foot rule. My experience driving in Virginia says to me that it is equally as dangerous as driving in Maryland and perhaps even more so.  The cry for the three-foot rule is a cry for driving safety as well. Like seat belt enforcement the three-foot rule is  a round-a-bout way to mitigate the carnage because driving safety is not a priority for individual residents of Maryland or Virginia. We’re using these laws to wake people up and give law enforcement some way to issue citations to the most egregiously unsafe among us.

Then we do have to stop and point out that states are asking for and getting special legislation to protect police officers on their traffic stops and those laws require drivers to move to another lane or slow down sharply as a courtesy to the officer. Fine. Extend the same courtesy to the rest of us and also encourage police and their families driving cars with police vanity plates to start obeying traffic laws.

Government is not doing well here. It sends confusing message, obfuscates debate, and only tends to do what garners a vote. Government can’t really help us. What is required is that every Virginian and ever Marylander make the choice to drive safely. Then government is out of the picture. Existing laws, it might be argued, already protect pedestrians and bicyclists.  If those laws are not working then we need to find out why, but first everyone needs to obey the traffic regulations and drive safely.

There is also the “Get Off the BUS option. States that are not considered “bicycle safety conscious” could be designated “Bicycle Unfriendly States.” Either get off that BUS and join us or we won’t bicycle in your state. You cannot ride where you do not feel safe. Maryland seems to be improving in that area but not Virginia.)

Folks, STOPtheMUD does NOT encourage and we specifically condemn anyone pacing a speeding driver at the same illegal speed. You cannot justify your own behavior by pointing to someone else’s bad behavior. We get it. It’s dramatic focusing your cam first on your speedometer and then on the driver ahead of you. It’s also a senseless risk that puts you, your passengers, and the rest of us in danger.

We have found a few of these videos on YouTube by drivers angry at speeding police officers. You can report them. Call their agency, state date and time, your legal speed and your estimate of the other driver’s speed.

Please don’t speed up to film your speedometer. Please don’t do it.

Let’s look at red-light running another way. I’ll ask the question.

What gives you the right to run the red light? What gives you the right to knowingly take chances with my life, or another life. What makes you think you can drive as you please while ignoring traffic laws that exist to keep us all safe – including you.  I don’t understand what motivates you to act out in such a manner. Apparently the dead, the maimed. and the worried among us don’t get it. Explain it to us! What does your inner voice say to encourage your behavior?

Tonight on the way into Chesapeake Beach I was tailgated miles in to town on Highway 261 north. The driver of the pickup truck pushed his way into the Beach grinding at my bumper the entire way. As I stopped at the red light for Mears Ave. this hero makes his right turn on the red light without even using his break lights. Zoom zoom zoom. Wow. Real HERO stuff. Rules were not made for him.

I just don’t get it.

This behavior is the norm in Maryland and lots of us are getting sick of it. Especially those of us who have lost, or almost lost, friends and loved ones in traffic accidents caused by reckless drivers.

You have no right to run the red light and place anyone at risk of injury or death.

Why don’t YOU get it?

Police said that John Barr, 82, of Essex, was driving a 1994 Chevrolet Celebrity station wagon south on Stemmers Run Road when a 2000 Nissan truck driven by Elmer Williams, 51, ran a red light at the intersection with Eastern Boulevard, striking the station wagon at about 2:30 p.m.

via Baltimore County police identify man, 82, killed in Essex crash – baltimoresun.com.

(Red-light runners kill people. Red-light and stop-sign running are part of the state-wide pandemic of reckless driving in Maryland. Almost everyone does it. It appears that if you continue to do it you run a great risk of either killing another or being killed yourself.

This holiday season give yourself the gift of safe driving. Your life may depend upon it. Be an example setter to Marylanders.)

New research indicates that individuals who have a high frequency of energy drink consumption (52 or more times within a year) were at a statistically significant higher risk for alcohol dependence and episodes of heavy drinking.

via Medical Daily: Drinking energy drink can make you dependent on alcohol.

Deer mating season started in late October and will run to mid-December, but November is the peak, said Bob Beyer, associate director for the Wildlife and Heritage Service of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

via Deer mating season means greater risk of highway crashes – wtop.com.

“The burden of keeping older drivers (who may be a safety risk to both themselves and others) off the road will frequently fall on a caregiver that may have to make this difficult decision.”

Read the ENTIRE story at Hello Boomers Magazine

via Do You Know A Senior Driver Who Should Not Be Driving? | Hello Boomers Magazine.

accident near the intersection of Berry Road and Bensville Road at about 1:32 p.m

SoMdNews.com has the ENTIRE story:

via Road workers killed in crash.

(Highway workers should not have to risk their lives to work! Drivers must be conscious of workers on the medians or on the sides of the highway.  Vehicle speed should be at posted special limits or slower to allow time to react and prevent collisions. )

Today, October 4, 2010 I watched a pair of Volvo car commercials on the TNT HD Network.. At the start of the first involving two cars a brief message displayed at the bottom of the screen admonishing viewers not to try the depicted risky driving as it was  done by professional drivers. The next thing you see is a very brief (subliminal?) black screen and the words, “There is more to life than playing it safe.” Where did that come from?

The next commercial encouraged viewers to go to naughtyvolvo.com. This takes you to Volvo’s website where you can learn about the Naughty Volvo 560.

Perhaps a driving safety message from the company that promotes safe cars is just not sexy enough for its advertising. You think? Certainly it must be for Volvo that  driving safety must be “as naughty as you want it.”

“Texting bans haven’t reduced crashes at all. In a perverse twist, crashes increased in 3 of the 4 states we studied after bans were enacted. It’s an indication that texting bans might even increase the risk of texting for drivers who continue to do so despite the laws.”

via IEEE Spectrum: Text Messaging While Driving Laws: Do They Decrease Safety?.

(uh oh. Could we be in trouble here?)