Stop Risking My Life When You Drive

Driving is hazardous to your health no matter how you lookat it, traveling at speeds faster than we were ever meant to go. Think whatpeople just 100 years ago would say if they saw the cars we have now…Amazing! Iam not talking about cars equipped with superchargers, turbochargers and nitro’d out race carsno I am talking about your Honda. For thousands of years humans have gotten bywith foot travel known as walking or running only recently have people begun todrive. This mode of transport is brand new in the great scheme of things andstill many people don’t take it seriously.

Everyday modern humans do things that would be considered tobe magic or the work of a higher power. Imagine how someone would have reactedto your 50” LED TV 200 years ago, they would have called you a witch and burnedyou for summoning demons. Cars are a device that has been designed to movepeople from one place to another more quickly than horseback and the car has revolutionizedthe human race.

There are a few key factors that should be followed whendriving a car, the first and certainly not least important is to pay attention.Today on the freeway there was a woman in an Audi driving at 55 – 60 MPH andhad her laptop mounted on the steering wheel. This is not only illegal but sostupid it cannot be over exaggerated how dumb and dangerous this is. There is aban on cell phone use in cars but this just takes the cake for distracteddriving, using a laptop while driving…sheesh. Another failure that people makeis failing to realize what on-ramps and off-ramps are. These stretches of roadare here for accelerating to highway speeds and slowing from them. In otherwords you can exit the highway without braking in traffic and causing a slowdown. On ramps, even the ones in Cali withlights on them are meant to give the driver a chance to get to highway speed sothey can merge. Too many people ignore this and cause accidents or congestionjust because they failed to use the provided facilities correctly. One thing toremember is that roads and highways are government property not yours so followthe rules.

The Deadly Smartphone

You may have just replaced your Wheel Hubs or Bearing Assembly. Maybe you put on new tires, windshield wipers, or new headlights.After all, we’re approaching winter quickly and in many places that means toughdriving conditions such as icy roads and darker nights. Even after suchmaintenance there may still be something compromising your safety whiledriving, and according to the NTSB, it’s your cell phone.

I’m definitely guilty of having used my cell phone whiledriving whether it was to answer a call, send a quick text message, or check anincoming email while sitting in traffic. It’s actually kind of hard to avoidwith today’s smart phones. They buzz in your pocket every time someone makes a commenton Facebook, every time CNN posts a new story, and at random times throughoutthe day if you’ve made the mistake of teaching your mom how to text. However, Ido agree that as they get more and more sophisticated, they get more and moredangerous to use while driving. The NTSB revealed that at any given moment,about 13.5 MILLION drivers are on hand-held phones. This past year alone about3,000 people died in the U.S. due to such distractions, and the NTSB is callingfor a nationwide ban on using cell phones to any degree while driving. And yes,this includes hands-free devices.

We’ll have to wait and see what this recommendation bringsas the NTSB doesn’t actually have the authority to pass the law themselves.Many people think this would be just another way our government is over-abusingtheir right of control, while others think this is a reasonable measure. Shouldthere be a compromise considering how many people use their phones for directions and other features? What about Pandora! And is talking to someone through a hands-freedevice any different than talking to someone in your back seat? I guess we will all find out shortly. What do youthink?

Use Common Sense on the Roads People!

The streets of america are a rough place...no I am not talking about growing up on the streets, I am talking about driving on them. Yeah maybe you need a new air suspension strut or air suspension compressor but that is not what makes them a rough place. What makes them bad is the other drivers, yes that means YOU and me and everyone else around. Every person has seen the news story when they end with "this horrible crash could have been avoided" but what does that really mean? what can we take away from that statement?

Cars and trucks are basically weapons on wheels, they are 3000+ lbs of unforgiving steel. People tend to forget the responsibility that goes along with driving a vehicle, the government regulates guns and driving for good reason. Sure we have all had that phone call or text come in while sitting in traffic and answered it while driving. There are signs on the road, ads in magazines and spots on TV telling us all not to text and drive. Texting and driving is as dangerous as drinking and driving but most drives just ignore the dangers.

Most phones nowadays have a feature called voice text which will take what you say and translate it to text that can be sent. The feature will also read texts back to you for added safety on the road. Phones are not the only issue when  people are behind the wheel, laziness and ignorance play a huge role in accidents as well. Law enforcement will tell us that speeding is the cause of accidents and in some ways that is true but on average it is not. Accidents are just that accidents cause by mis-judgments of a situation or just not paying attention. "I swear i didn't see him there!" but the truth is you didn't look and this happens all the time. It is time for us all to take responsibility for our actions behind the wheel and make the driving world a safer place to be.