Driving Idiots

A friend and I were out shopping and lunching today and we were astounded by the idiotic way people were driving. People cut us off, passed on the right (at an intersection on a two lane road), went too slow, went too fast…generally driving like idiots! Maybe it was because of the summer solstice. That was the only reason we could think of that would cause people to behave in such an irresponsible way.

I really don’t understand people who drive like they are the only people in the universe with a car. Take the guy from the Jackass movies who was killed in a car crash this week. Did you see the picture of what was left of his Porsche? It bore no resemblance to a car whatsoever! He posted on the internet, via Twitter, pictures of himself drinking a couple of hours before his death. Then he got in his car, with a friend, and drove 130 miles down a road in the middle of the night. Yes, I’m sure the road was free of traffic. But that still doesn’t mean that should be driven at that rate of speed by someone who had been drinking. It takes a split second to lose control of a vehicle and, at that speed, it will launch a car into the woods and kill the occupants. In this case, not only from blunt force trauma but also from fire, since the car burst into flames.

Oh, by the way, drinking buzzed is still drinking and driving. Yes, he may have only had a couple of drinks and didn’t appear to be intoxicated. But he must have been tired since it was the middle of the night, which impairs people’s judgment, and he had been drinking, which impairs people’s judgment. Not the best conditions to be driving a car at 130 miles per hour!

I mean no disrespect to the deceased and his family and friends have my sympathy but the only word that comes to mind to describe this behavior is idiotic!

I try to be as safe as possible when I drive. I stick fairly close to the speed limit. I don’t even like to really go five miles over the speed limit. I pay attention to other drivers, people by the side of the road, people biking, walking, running and kids playing in yards. I try never to go backward if I can go forward (which is why I tend to back into parking spots since people won’t be walking behind my vehicle backing in whereas they might be when I am backing out), I stop at stop signs and stop at red lights before I make a right turn, I slow down at yellow lights, I move into the middle lane on the turnpike so people can merge into the highway, and I always check an intersection both ways before I drive through it (just a quick glance to make sure people are stopping where they need to be stopping). I do try to be as careful as possible without annoying other people…like I don’t’ drive below the speed limit because that just pisses me off when someone does it to me. But I am careful. It just makes sense to me.

My theory is that some people’s main purpose in life is to serve as warning to others as to what not to do. Like the guy from the Jackass movies. No matter what he did in life, the way his life ended will be how he will be remembered. As a warning not to behave the same way. I would prefer my life’s purpose to not end up being a warning to other people on how not to live. That I what I prefer. And I do my best to make sure that won’t happen.

Now, I just hope the idiots of the world won’t impact my life in any more of a negative way than to be an irritant. If they actually impact my life in a way that myself or my loved ones (friends and family) are hurt in any way….well….that will just tick me off. And really, please don’t do that. You really don’t want to see me ticked off, now do you????